Good morning Nigeria, welcome to the latest Brand Spur Nigeria News headlines for today Friday, 12th March 2021.
1. Osinbajo, Sanwo-Olu Unveil Evercare Hospital In Lekki
Evercare Hospital Lekki, a private multispecialty tertiary care facility, has officially been unveiled by His Excellency, the Vice President, Yemi Osinbajo, and the Governor of Lagos State, Mr. Babajide Sanwo-Olu who was welcomed by the Chairman, Evercare Hospital Lekki, Tosin Runsewe, and the management team of the hospital in Lagos.
The purpose-built state-of-the-art 165-bed multispecialty, tertiary care hospital is part of the Evercare Group, a leading impact-driven healthcare group in emerging markets operating hospitals, clinics, and diagnostic facilities across Africa and South Asia.
The commissioning of Evercare Hospital Lekki is a strategic investment designed to support the Nigerian healthcare sector by providing quality and accessible healthcare which will help alleviate some of the burden brought on by medical tourism.
2. Trade Deficit Expands For The Fifth Time
2020 was clearly a year of disruption in trade, as the COVID-19 pandemic imposed a double-edged shock on demand and supply.
In Nigeria, the country recorded its worst deficit outturn since at least 2016. The slump in merchandise trade flows (-10.3% y/y) in 2020 was not as wide as expected due to the surge in imports, despite the devaluation of the naira and the historic fall in crude prices.
On a quarterly basis, however, trade flows improved by 8.9% q/q in Q4’20, as the reopening of economies spurred demand for the country’s exports, alongside the country’s ever-growing import bill. Consequently, the country’s merchandise trade deficit widened to ₦7.4 trillion in 2020, as a result of overdependence on crude oil for exports and inelastic import demand.
On a quarterly basis, the country experienced its fifth consecutive quarter of a wider trade deficit, in line with our expectations.
3. Chivita 100% Emerges Fruit Juice Brand Of The Decade
Chivita 100% has emerged as the Best Premium Quality Natural Fruit Juice Brand of the Decade.
Brand Spur Nigeria reports that the leading premium fruit juice brand, Chivita 100%, emerged as the Best Premium Quality Natural Fruit Juice Brand of the Decade at the recently held West Africa Brands Excellence Awards in Lagos to mark its 10th anniversary of recognizing excellence and to celebrate the 2021 winners.
Chivita Celebrates the Second Edition of its Chivita World Juice Day
The West Africa Brands Excellence Awards is awarded annually to companies, agencies & brands that have been consistent in delivering impressive results within the 12 months of review, as well as to individuals who have shown true achievements in their respective sectors.
4. #FuelPriceHike: FG Increases Fuel Price To N212 Per Litre
President Muhammadu Buhari-led federal government has increased the fuel price to N212.61 per litre.
Brand Spur Nigeria reports that the new fuel increment was announced on Thursday night by the Petroleum Products Pricing Regulatory Agency (PPPRA), an organisation established by the government to control the price of petroleum products in the country.
PPPRA stated that the retail price for a litre of fuel for the month will be between N209.61 and N212.61.
5. IBOM ICON Hotel & Golf Resort Introduces New Performance Reward Programs
IBOM ICON Hotel & Golf Resort has introduced new performance reward programs for its staff. The management recently introduced two key initiatives “ICON Gold Star Award” (IGSA) and “ICON Departmental Efforts Award Scheme” (IDEAS) aimed at rewarding individual as well as departmental performances to spur up staff morale and motivate its workforce to greater achievements.
Every month, Managers are expected to nominate junior employees who have performed excellently for recognition and rewards through the ICON Gold Star Award program. The winner of the monthly reward program is to receive a cash reward of Fifty Thousand Naira (50, 000.00), a Certificate of Excellence and have his/her portrait prominently displayed at the Front Office for recognition.
6. NSE Completes Demutualisation — SEC And CAC Approve
The Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) has received final approvals of its demutualization plan from the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and Corporate Affairs Commission Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC) respectively.
Brand Spur Nigeria understands that with these approvals, the exchange has now completed its demutualization process.
Under the demutualization plan, a new non-operating holding company, the Nigerian Exchange Group Plc (‘NGX Group’) has been created. The Group will have three operating subsidiaries, namely: Nigerian Exchange Limited (NGX Limited), the operating exchange; NGX Regulation Limited (NGX REGCO), the independent regulation company; and NGX Real Estate Limited (NGX RELCO), the real estate company. All the entities have been duly registered at the CAC.
7. Asia Pacific Energy Leaders Identify Seven Key Trends For A Sustainable Energy Future
Regional and global business leaders, policymakers, and government representatives throughout the energy sector convened at the Asia Pacific Energy Week to discuss regional challenges and opportunities. Themed ‘Shaping the Energy of Tomorrow’, the 2-day virtual event held from March 9 to 10, 2021 saw more than 2,500 participants actively engage in the discussions, opinion polls and questions. The primary objective focused on fostering an ecosystem of collaboration and co-creation between stakeholders to help meet the world’s sustainability goals, boost economic growth, create new jobs and industries, improve human welfare and attain carbon neutrality by 2050.
Over the two days, the thought leaders in diverse panel sessions deliberated and arrived at 7 key trends for a successful transition towards a sustainable energy future.
- Access to reliable, affordable and sustainable energy supply is a necessity for economic growth
- Ramp up the contribution of renewable energy for long-term sustainability
- Utilize technology for efficient and cleaner use of energy
- Embrace emerging and cleaner energy resources like Green Hydrogen
- Digitalization and AI-driven technologies will form the core of a future-proof and efficient transmission system
- Access to sustainable, competitive capital will accelerate the energy transformation journey
- Collaboration among stakeholders is imperative for the transformation of the energy landscape
8. Refinitiv Announces Winners of 2021 Thailand FX Awards
Refinitiv, a business under the London Stock Exchange Group (LSEG), has announced the winners of its FX Trading Awards 2021 for Thailand.
The FX Awards aim to promote transparency and liquidity in the Thai foreign exchange market and to recognize its importance to the broader Thailand economy. The award winners were determined based on trading activity on Refinitiv’s FX trading platforms throughout 2020.
Foreign exchange is the world’s most-actively-traded asset class. Refinitiv was appointed as the Official Calculating Agent for the Bank of Thailand’s transaction-based Thai Baht benchmark in 2019 to enhance Thailand’s FX and implied interest rate benchmarks, and better reflect the growth and evolving nature of Thai financial markets.
It recently reported the average daily volume (ADV) of foreign exchange trading across its FX platforms globally totaled US$457 billion in February 2021. Average daily volume for spot trading was US$91 billion.
9. Middlemen And Exploitation: The Urgent Need For Governance Or Elimination
Our society and Businesses use middlemen a lot to get transactions and activities done as quickly as possible but the scenario seems to have changed as the middlemen seem to have gained unrivalled power over other players in the transactions and negotiations.
The middleman is another word for an intermediary involved in a transaction. The Role of a middleman or intermediary is to facilitate interaction between two or more parties while receiving a commission or fee.
Their role as a facilitator or intermediary has however given that some many unchecked powers on pricing and how the supply or value chain should be run. These unchecked powers have to lead to them controlling how negotiations and transactions are made.
10. FMDQ Admits TSL SPV PLC ₦12.00 Billion Series 1 Guaranteed Fixed Rate Infrastructure Bond To Its Platform
FMDQ Securities Exchange Limited (“FMDQ Exchange” or “the Exchange”), through its Board Listings, Markets and Technology Committee, has granted the approval for the Listing of the TSL SPV PLC ₦12.00 billion Series 1 Guaranteed Fixed Rate Infrastructure Bond under its ₦50.00 billion Bond Issuance Programme on the Exchange’s Platform.
The listing of the bond joins a host of other corporate securities issued on FMDQ Exchange’s platform this year, actively tapping the DCM as a viable avenue to raise funds to meet working capital requirements.
That’s the latest Brand Spur Nigeria News Headlines for today. Read more business, brand news on Brand Spur Nigeria. See you again next Friday.
