Category: Money market

South Africa’s Standard Bank has taken a stake in local fintech firm, Nomanini, to offer credit to potentially millions of small shop owners and other informal retailers across Africa that have limited access to banking services. Africa’s biggest bank by assets has invested $4 million in Nomanini, which connects informal merchants with distributors via an e-wallet, and aims to roll the service out across 14 African countries by early 2021. Nine out of 10 retail transactions in Africa are conducted in cash or via informal channels like kiosks and open-air…

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Truecaller yesterday announced that it has crossed one million paying subscribers globally, and has added a series of new feature to its paid subscription service, “Truecaller Premium.” In a press release,   the firm stated that  rolled out globally, the premium subscription service would now incorporate several advanced and more powerful spam blocking features that include automatically updating and blocking top spammers among others. The spam blocking features are currently available to Android users across all global markets of Truecaller. Additionally, Truecaller’s another recently launched subscription service, Truecaller Premium Gold, will also offer…

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Fidelity Bank Plc, in partnership with Gazelle Academy and Bayero University Kano, at the weekend, concluded an entrepreneurship training programme for over 200 students in Kano State.  Organised under the Fidelity Youth Empowerment Academy stream 5 (YEA 5), the week-long training programme seeks to equip undergraduates with requisite skills, know-how, and capabilities needed to take start businesses even whilst in school.  Participants received training in various skill areas including fashion designing, makeover, henna design, new media marketing, baby bag making, bead making, etc. This empowerment programme, which is part of…

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Despite concerns over recent decline in oil prices and  looming global economic recession,  the latest Central Bank of Nigeria’s (CBN) monthly Business Expectations Survey (BES)  report  shows  that majority of  respondent firms expect the naira to appreciate in the coming months. According to the August 2019 BES report, which was posted on the apex bank’s website yesterday, majority of businesses in the country also expressed optimism on the macro economy in the current month. Specifically, the report indicates that firms’ outlook on the volume of total order, business activity and financial conditions (working capital) were positive…

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Promises 20% discount on registration Pan African financial services institution, United Bank for Africa (UBA) Plc, and the Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI), have partnered to organise the 2019 edition of the Lagos International Trade Fair.   The fair, which holds between November 1 and 10, 2019, is the 33rd edition and is expected to provide an avenue for networking and other business opportunities that will assist to catapult business activities in Africa’s largest and busiest city, Lagos and in Nigeria.   UBA, which is the headline partner, will…

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Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Governor, Mr. Godwin Emefiele, met fund managers in London last week to lure investors back into the local naira currency, Reuters reported two banking sources as saying yesterday. Emefiele told investors that currency stability would continue, a fund manager and a banking source said. The naira weakened to 364 last week as oil prices fell. The naira has come under pressure at the investors and exporters forex window in recent weeks due to a decline in oil prices as well as a drop in yields,…

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Fidelity Bank has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Open Technology Foundation (OTF) for the adoption of a standard Application Programming Interface (API) for its operations as a financial institution. Open banking is a system that provides a user with a network of financial institutions’ data through the use of application programming interfaces (APIs). The Open Banking Nigeria Standard defines how financial data and services should be created, shared and accessed. By relying on networks instead of centralisation, open banking helps customers to securely share their financial data with other…

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The Non-Performing Loan (NPL) ratio in the country’s banking system dropped to single digit at 9.36 per cent in June 2019 for the first time in about three months, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has said. Deputy Governor in charge of Financial System Stability at the apex bank, Mrs. Aishah Ahmad, stated this in her personal statement for the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) meeting last month, which along with other MPC members’ personal statements were posted on the CBN’s website yesterday. The MPC members stated that the continuous decline in banks’ NPL…

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Cafe One, Nigeria’s first digital, hybrid experience centre by Sterling Bank Plc, recently hosted award winning Nigerian writer, Lesley Nneka Arimah, in collaboration with Farafina Books. She is the author of a collection of short stories titled, “What It Means When A Man Falls From The Sky,” which won the 2019 Caine Prize for Africa. Café one, dubbed as a place where innovation meets community, was designed for comfort and equipped to provide banking services with ease and convenience. The space boasts of serving the best coffee and pastries in Lagos,…

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The People’s Bank of China has transferred $1 billion worth of funds to Turkey in, Beijing’s biggest support package ever for President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Bloomberg reported at the weekend. The cash infusion boosted Turkey’s foreign reserves around the time of Istanbul local elections that had left international investors fretting about the country’s political and financial stability. The Chinese funds also show Turkey is making headway in its efforts to diversify sources of foreign investment amid unprecedented tensions with the West. Treasury and Finance Minister Berat Albayrak has said the…

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