Global economy In line with our expectation of improved factory activity as workers return from the Lunar New Year holiday, China’s manufacturing PMI rose to the highest in four months. According to the National Bureau of Statistics, the manufacturing PMI notched up by 1.3 points to 51.9 points in March (February: 50.6 points). For us, […]

Global foreign investment plummeted to historic lows in 2020 as Covid-19 forced investors to push the brakes on expansion plans. Foreign investment projects worth an estimated $486.9bn were announced by global companies in 2020, which is $310.8bn (40%) less than in 2019, according to full-year data from investment monitor fDi Markets. This means that the […]

In our 2020 Outlook report, titled Nigeria in the New Decade: Nothing Ventured; Nothing Gained, we had reviewed the performance of the Nigerian economy over the last decade and highlighted critical imperatives necessary to restore the nation on the path of prosperity in the new decade. We noted that while economic performance in the last […]

The Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) will hold its second set of meetings of the year on the 22nd and 23rd of March 2021. We expect the Committee to review the domestic and external macroeconomic conditions and financial markets developments since its last meeting in January and provide forward guidance on how it intends to balance […]

Q4:2020 Labour Market Statistics: Youth Unemployment at an All-time High The Nigerian Bureau of Statistics (NBS) released the labour statistics for Q4:2020 and we summarise the highlights. Interestingly, the NBS was able to conduct the survey through face-to-face interviews following the lifting of restrictions imposed by the pandemic compared with the Computer Assisted Telephone Interview […]

Price appreciation in BUACEMENT (+5.1%), STANBIC (+10.0%) and INTBREW (+5.9%) buoyed performance in the market today. Consequently, the benchmark index rose 89bps to 38,722.87 points, YTD loss improved to -3.8% and market capitalisation increased ₦178.1bn to ₦20.3tn. Trading activity declined as volume and value fell 4.6% and 24.0% respectively to 277.2m units and ₦3.1bn. The […]

Nigeria’s merchandise trade improved 8.9% q/q in Q4:2020, the highest since Q2:2019 though dipped 9.9% y/y to ₦9.1tn. For FY:2020, merchandise trade fell by 10.3% y/y to ₦32.4tn due to a sharp contraction in exports according to report by the NBS. Consequently, the trade balance had a deficit of ₦7.4tn, the first since 2017 and […]

Volaris Group has announced the successful completion of the purchase of SSP Limited. Based in Solihull, United Kingdom, the 700 person company provides core policy, billing, and claims software to leading insurers such as Direct Line Group and leading insurance brokerages such as One Call. At £70m revenues, SSP exemplifies our ability to acquire larger […]

Sometime ago, I was daunted by the headlines of some newspapers that a bank has commenced winding up proceedings against a large oil marketing company in Nigeria over unpaid loans relating to certain transactions. This was not the disturbing bit of the news. Tucked in somewhere towards the end of that article was the information […]