Business

FG Disburses N785bn To MSMEs In Nigeria – Minister

Published

3 years ago

November 10, 2022

Our Correspondent, Bauchi

The Minister for Industry, Trade and Investment, Otunba Richard Adebayo, said that the federal government had disbursed about N785 billion to over 10 million Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises owners in Nigeria.

The Minister, who stated this in Bauchi on Thursday at the end of the 14th meeting of the National Council on Industry, Trade and Investment, said this was done through the Bank of Industry (BOI) from 2019 to July, 2022.

According to him, the move was made possible because the Bank Of Industry had further deepened its capital base to $5 billion with international partners like the African Export-Import Bank (AFREXIMBANK) and Credit Suisse, among others.

“We have revised the MSME Policy to drive the growth and competitiveness of MSMEs in the country and successfully increased the nation’s capacity to fund tech-driven MSMEs.

“This was done through our collaboration with the African Development Bank (AfDB) to secure the $500 million Technology Fund.

“Furthermore, the MSME Survival Fund Initiative was launched in the wake of the COVID-19 Pandemic as part of the Nigerian Economic Sustainability Plan, which protected MSMEs from the shock of the COVID-19 Pandemic.

“As of July 2022, N67.5 billion had been disbursed to over 1.2 million beneficiaries, thus protecting at-risk jobs and creating new ones,” he said.

He also said that in order to further create an enabling business environment to attract and retain investment, the ministry and the Nigerian Investment Promotion Council were committed to ensure they didn’t just attract but also protect investments that genuinely benefit Nigeria and its citizens.

Adebayo further stated that based on this, the country had successfully revised its model Bilateral Investment Treaty (BIT) to include a specific provision for investment facilitation that institutionalised the principle of supporting investors to actualise their investments.

“Our initiatives and successes are too numerous to mention at this forum, but there is still a lot of ground to cover.

“The nation is looking to us to solve big problems such as the unemployment of almost 30 million people who are mostly youth.

“Given the size of our challenges as a nation, we must design interventions to address the scale of the problems we need to solve. This will ensure we come up with creative and innovative ways to finance, implement and ultimately deliver transformative results,” said the Minister.

Also, Gov. Bala Mohammed of Bauchi state, said his administration had been initiating and implementing policies with the objectives of moving the economy of the state along the trajectory of the nation’s overall development aspirations.

He added that those policies were also in tandem with President Muhammadu Buhari’s aspiration to make sure that poverty was fought to the last level.

“I want to acknowledge the contribution of one of our own, Hajiya Mariam Katagum who represents us at the Federal Executive Council along with our brother, the Minister for Education, Malam Adamu Adamu.

“We are in the opposition but we have no regret that we have them as our representatives. They have really brought representation to the level of competence that I am proud of.

“I must thank Mr President for allowing them to always contribute. Bauchi state is a state of Buhari and Buhari is Bauchi state and that’s why even as a governor in the opposition I know the position of Mr President,” he said.

Highlights of the occasion was the exhibition of made in Nigeria products by agencies under the ministry, among which were; a Nigerian assembled electric car, fabricated electric cables, tiles, and others.

Business

French Media Giant Canal+ Takes Over S.Africa’s Multichoice

Published

10 hours ago

September 22, 2025

Editor

French media giant Canal+ said Monday it had taken effective control of South African television and streaming company MultiChoice, creating a group present in nearly 70 countries in Africa, Europe and Asia.

The companies said in a joint statement that the combined group will have a workforce of 17,000 employees and serve more than 40 million subscribers.

The acquisition is “the largest transaction ever undertaken” by Canal+, the statement said.

Canal+, which is already the sector’s leader in French-speaking African countries, now controls what it described as the leader in the continent’s English- and Portuguese-speaking regions.

“This acquisition allows us to strengthen our position as a leader in Africa, one of the most dynamic pay-TV markets in the world,” Canal+ chief executive Maxime Saada said in the statement.

The buyout was given a final green light by South Africa’s competition authority in late July, more than a year after Canal+ launched its bid.

Canal+ offered 125 rand ($7.2) per share for MultiChoice when it launched its offer last year, valuing the South African firm at around $3.0 billion.

Canal+ is present in 25 African countries through 16 subsidiaries and has eight million subscribers.

MultiChoice operates in 50 countries across sub-Saharan Africa and has 14.5 million subscribers.

It includes Africa’s premier sports broadcaster, SuperSport, and the DStv satellite television service.

AFP

Business

BREAKING: Nigeria’s GDP Grows By 4.23% In Q2 2025 – NBS

Published

14 hours ago

September 22, 2025

Editor

Nigeria’s Gross Domestic Product grew by 4.23 per cent (year-on-year) in the second quarter of 2025, the National Bureau of Statistics revealed in its Q2 2025 GDP Report.

According to the report released on Monday on its website, the figure shows a significant improvement compared to 3.48 per cent recorded in the second quarter of 2024 and the 3.13 per cent recorded in Q1 2025.

The figures signal a strengthening economy, driven by recent rebasing, rebound in oil production and a resilient non-oil sector.

The report said, “Following the rebasing of the Gross Domestic Product using 2019 as the base year, previous quarterly GDP estimates were benchmarked to the rebased annual estimates to align the old series with the new rebased estimates

“This procedure provided a new quarterly GDP series, which is compared to the 2025 second quarter estimates. Gross Domestic Product grew by 4.23% (year-on-year) in real terms in the second quarter of 2025.

“This growth rate is higher than the 3.48 per cent recorded in the second quarter of 2024. During the quarter under review, agriculture grew by 2.82%, an improvement from the 2.60% recorded in the corresponding quarter of 2024.

According to NBS, “The growth of the industry sector stood at 7.45% from 3.72% recorded in the second quarter of 2024, while the Services sector recorded a growth of 3.94% from 3.83% in the same quarter of 2024.”

The report said in terms of share of the GDP, “the Industry sector contributed more to the aggregate GDP in the second quarter of 2025 at 17.31% compared to the corresponding quarter of 2024 at 16.79%.”

It added, “In the quarter under review, aggregate GDP at basic price stood at N100,730,501.10 million in nominal terms. This performance is higher when compared to the second quarter of 2024, which recorded an aggregate GDP of N84,484,878.46 million, indicating a year-on-year nominal growth of 19.23%.”

Details later…

Business

Why Nigeria’s Crude Oil Production Dropped To 1.63mbpd In August – NUPRC

Published

1 day ago

September 21, 2025

Editor

The Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC) has explained that unscheduled maintenance at a refinery facility made Nigeria’s crude oil production drop on a month-on-month basis in August.

This comes as Nigeria’s crude oil production dropped to 1.63 million barrels per day month-on-month in August, down from 1.71 million bopd in July.

NUPRC disclosed this in its Crude Oil and Condensate Production for August 2025, released on Saturday.

This means a 4.7 per cent drop in combined crude oil and condensate production from 1.71 million bopd in July.

In the same vein, crude oil production itself declined by 4.8 per cent, down from 1.5 million bopd in July 2025.

“The month-on-month drop was driven by a single-day unscheduled maintenance at an oil facility.

“In the month of August, the lowest and peak combined crude and condensate production were 1.59 million bopd and 1.85 million bopd, respectively,” NUPRC said.

The data showed that while there was a decline month-on-month, the country’s crude oil production rose on a year-on-year basis by 5.5 per cent to 1.63 mbpd in August this year from 1.58 million bopd in the same period last year.

Further analysis indicates that daily condensate production in August stood at 197,229 bpd, reflecting a decline.

Also, Nigeria’s crude oil output in August achieved 96 per cent of its OPEC quota, which is set at 1.5 million bopd.

Accordingly, in the period under review, Forcados Terminal topped the production charts, delivering a total of 8.99 million barrels, including 8.08 million barrels of crude oil and 915.2k barrels of condensates.