The CP has a tenor of 260 days with the aim of raising up to N30 billion to support the Bank’s short-term funding needs.
The CP serves as an additional funding source for the Bank.
Yes, we are just trying to recover from the pandemic and the pandemic is still showing it’s ugly head but people are gradually getting back to their daily activities and there would be a need for new clothes that matches people’s style and personality.
You can transfer your business-oriented skills to fashion design even if you don’t know how to design clothes or sew clothes. You can always employ designers to work with but you must have an idea of what the business entails. You can also brush up your skills by going to fashion school to learn about it or do it the streetway and actually learn all about the tailoring business and then incorporate it with fashion design knowledge and skills you can acquire.
You can also learn how to style from fashion schools or you intern with a stylist. You can also broaden your scope by learning about the psychology of colours and people’s personality.
This ranges from services like graphics design, video editing, social media management, writing and even customer care services. There are companies accepting freelance services especially when they can’t afford having a full time doing the same role. There are also foreign platforms such as Fiver where freelancers can offer their services.
There are a lot of construction sites in Nigeria. The real estate business seems to be booming both on a small and large scale. You see places like Eko Atlantic City being developed and it is a sight to behold. That is however being done by companies with enough funding but as a small business owner, you can also compete because who doesn’t need a home.
There is an increase in people who buy houses and those who buy lands. Real estate ecosystem is big enough to accommodate other services such as construction, plumbing and so on. Who says that you can’t own a mini construction company that hires construction workers. The ecosystem is big enough to play in.
New business centres, schools, residential buildings, and private homes are being constructed and there are plenty of areas in which the real estate and construction services play meaningful roles. You can choose one and specialize.
We all know that earning from blogging takes time and patience but once the seed has germinated then you begin to reap. There are so many human angle stories, so many things happening in pop and high culture that needs coverage.
With the increase in smartphones in Nigeria, there is a tendency for more phones to get faulty. The phone repair and accessories is a small business that has its own market and who says it can’t be growing into the large venture.
People buy phone accessories every day and this accessory includes headphone, charger, power bank and battery.
These are some of the small businesses you can easily set up and I hope you found this writing useful.
Therefore, it is not surprising that brands are actively using the platform to make themselves visible. It works so well so far. Brands become more relatable, adds are as close to organic as possible, and it is still new and full of potential.
In this article, you will get to know why you should use TikTok, what business features it has to offer, and how to use it. TikTok has a lot of potentials and we are going to prove it.
Spice up your marketing game with TikTok for business.
TikTok became the most downloaded app in August 2020. This fact alone can make you seriously consider this social media platform for self-promotion. However, it is not only about numbers:
It is a platform where you can easily target Gen Z who are tired of the perfect looks on Instagram. TikTok users are all in for messy dances, non-polished feed, and authenticity. However, you can easily find Millenials and even boomers in there now.
Content on TikTok is quite easy to create and is very light-hearted. You do not need professional cameras and hours of editing to produce picture-perfect content. That is how brands become more relatable: they share funny content while using the same tools as everyone on the platform.
The power of brands is in the people who create them. However, they are typically hiding behind graphics and stock photos in its worst case. However, TikTok is more about personalities. You have a great opportunity to show your team.
Even advertisements on TikTok are shareable. Here it is: you offer dissertation writing services but instead of showing the price list, you show how people write dissertations in a funny way: procrastinating till there is no time left, drinking way too many energy drinks, pulling all-nighters, crying while sourcing the paper, etc. You will both promote the services and create shareable content.
These were only top-3 reasons to use TikTok as a business. Other ones like wide influencer marketing opportunities, a full-screen format that prevents users from being distracted by the content of someone else, and the new niche in marketing are too obvious to mention.
Now that you are inspired and motivated to explore marketing on TikTok, let’s find out what it has to offer for the brands.
After you have created the business account use the following features:
You can tell more about your business by providing various information. Firstly, you can state your country/region/address to target local consumers and tell them where to find you exactly. Secondly, you can state the name of the business to increase recognition (the name should be the same as in your legal documentation). Lastly, put a link to your website to make the shopping process easier.
Seeing how your advertisement performs is a key stage for future planning and deciding on the pros and cons of the previous campaign. TikTok has an Ads Manager that makes analyzing the data as easy and convenient as possible.
You can get an overview of all the campaigns on the “Dashboard”. Here, you can see the status of the campaigns (Active or Not Delivering), the performance by gender, age, operation system, interests, etc., and suggestions.
In “Campaigns” you can analyze the performance of every single campaign and ad. You can access the data in charts, tables, graphics, or whatever works best for you by customizing.
You can also access the data on how your content is working to readjust the content plan if needed. However, keep in mind that no historic data will be shown. and you have to wait 7 days to get the first statistical overview.
In-feed ads mean a video of a brand that appears in the feed of a user on the “For you” page. It lasts between 9 to 15 seconds and has a button with a call-to-action like “Buy now”. The link will take customers to your website, shop, or app.
You have only 2 or 3 seconds to convince the customer to not scroll past. You can ask questions, show your influencers who you partnered with, or establish the problem that your future customer will relate to.
Do not forget to put text on it to connect with people with disabilities.
Can you imagine that every user who opens the social media app sees your ad? TikTok made it possible! For the entire day, every time a user opens an app, the first thing that they see is a full-screen ad of a brand.
You can hardly not notice the ad. If you can easily scroll down in-feed advertisement or not even get to the point where ads appear on the “For You” page, with the branded takeover, you will be forced to see the ad every time you want to use an app.
However, only one brand per day can use this feature. It costs a lot as well, obviously. Do think about the overwhelming reach though…
It is not that you suggest a hashtag to your audieaccountnce and they make content around it for prizes or something like it works on Instagram or Facebook. TikTok knows the power of hashtags and gave the opportunity to monetize them.
Branded hashtags are featured on the discover page. After you click the hashtag, you get to the brand page, read the description of the challenge, and see the most popular videos so far.
You have to think about the challenge that one create easily TikToks videos around it. It may raise awareness about the issues related to brand causes and values or be light-hearted and relatable.
You have an opportunity to reach a potential audience that otherwise may not discover your brand and let the users speak themselves about your business. However, this type of advertisement is expensive as well.
Lenses, filters, and masks are often used in TikToks to make someone pretty and cute, fix the lighting, or add the fun part in the video. You can create something brand-related like a makeup filter with the products of yours or something that you know will be widely used.
Another big part of TikTok is music and sound effects. Sometimes songs are trending, especially in the dancing videos, but more often than not certain phrases and sound effects are used. If you come up with something funny or something that can apply to various types of content, you are likely to get very popular very fast.
TikTok is still trending and, thus, becoming a solid platform for marketing. You can reach the uncatchable Gen Z in there, become more relatable, show the people behind your brand, and even get your advertisement spread if you come up with a less selling way of selling.
TikTok offers interesting business features that will help your brand become more visible. It breaks down to such basics as business information and in-feed ads. However, there are pretty intriguing types of advertisement as well. For example, an ad of your brand can pop up every time every single user opens an app for the entire day with Branded Takeover or get your Hashtag Challenge Featured.
TikTok is a truly amazing platform that has so much potential. Just grab the opportunity and become one of those who discovered it earlier than other brands.
In particular, the lockdown measures have affected the supply of and demand for certain products and, hence, their prices.
Since the beginning of the pandemic, an increasing number of people have lost their jobs or been obliged to work fewer hours (whether from home or otherwise), thereby experiencing a drop in their income. Consequently, the demand for many non‑essential goods and services has plummeted.
The initially very sharp fall in demand led to a decrease in the prices of some items, such as fuel, in the “basket” of goods and services used to calculate the consumer price index (CPI).
As a result, consumer price inflation slowed down at the global level from about 4 per cent in the first quarter of 2020 to about 2.5 per cent in the second quarter. As lockdown measures were subsequently eased, consumer price inflation picked up slightly but still remained below the pre‑pandemic level. In August 2020, the prices of all goods and services were on average 2.7 per cent higher than in August 2019.
On the other hand, owing to COVID-19-related supply disruptions and the strong demand from consumers stockpiling food and medical supplies, but also personal care products, cleaning products and toilet paper, the prices of these goods have increased substantially.
As can be seen in the chart below, the food component of the CPI has increased at a much faster rate than the overall CPI in all regions of the world. Globally, in August 2020, the prices of food products were on average 5.5 per cent higher than in August 2019.
Increases in food prices can have a major impact on the living standards of lower‑income households, which generally spend most of their income on food. Even a small increase can confront the members of such households with difficult decisions. Rising food prices and job losses triggered by the COVID-19 pandemic have the potential to undermine progress towards the Sustainable Development Goals and could even spark social unrest.
Looking at food price trends in different regions, it becomes clear that food prices started to increase in Central and Southern Asia and in Eastern and South-Eastern Asia as from January 2020, and a few months later in the rest of the world. This may be related to the timing of the COVID-19 outbreaks in the various regions: many Asian countries were hit earlier than countries in Europe and Northern America and elsewhere.
In Eastern and South-Eastern Asia, the food prices inflation increased from 5.2 per cent in December 2019 to 9.3 per cent in January 2020. In Europe and Northern America, the food prices inflation increased from 1.9 per cent in March 2020 to 3.8 per cent in April 2020, when the lockdown measures were introduced. Similar patterns were observed in all other regions.
The consumer price index (CPI) has steadily increased since September 2019, largely due to money supply saturation, supply-side challenges and cost-push factors. The closure of the land borders, heightened insecurity in the food-producing states and more importantly slow disbursement of forex and rationing limited commodities supply.
This combined with money supply growth (3.53%), supply chain disruptions, higher logistics costs and electricity tariff hike exacerbated inflationary pressures. More so, November is the first month in which the impact of the increase in the price of PMS and a partial rise in electricity tariffs will feed into the inflation basket.
The Federal Government has announced a N5 per litre reduction in the pump price of Premium Motor Spirit (PMS) effective December 14. Although this could slightly ease pressures on consumers’ disposable income, it is highly unlikely that transporters will reduce their fares as a result of the price fall. It also raises fundamental concerns about the deregulation of the downstream petroleum industry especially at a time when global oil prices are rising.
Since the liberalization of the downstream oil & gas sector, petrol price has increased by over 30% to N170/ litre.
The CBN has intensified efforts towards achieving price and exchange rate stability through increased forex supply and introduction of special bills. An increase in forex supply will have a positive impact on output.
The special bills, which qualify as liquid assets on banks’ balance sheets, will serve as a ‘replacement for cash’ for 90-days. This will help mop up market liquidity, push up interest rates and taper inflationary pressures.
Inflation trend across Sub-Saharan Africa was mixed. Three of the countries under our review recorded lower inflation rates while the other three posted increases. The inflation trajectory was largely determined by food price movement, transport costs and exchange rate value.
The monetary authorities left their monetary policy rate unchanged at their respective meetings. This is aimed at moderating risks to financial stability while supporting output growth. At the same time, it will allow the impact of the previous policy measures to be fully transmitted.
Inflation will continue its upward trend in December due to supply chain disruptions, exchange rate devaluation, forex restrictions and increased festive demand. The continued rise in inflation will be a major consideration at the MPC meeting in January 2021.
The committee may be forced to change its current policy stance and adopt a tighter monetary policy.
While Covid-19 and the recession mean less consumer spending, it is expected to see the saving rate going up as people move into cash preservation. In fact, data from consumer research and insights firm Kasi Insight shows that there is hope when it comes to consumers’ willingness to purchase or use certain financial products, such as mobile money, investments, and credit cards.
The tracking study reveals that 88% of consumers are still attracted by financial products despite the recession and the current pandemic. Albeit, some were investing less than they usually did as they were wary of risks. Only 12% said they don’t know or don’t buy financial products.
Kasi Insight surveyed 3,323 people in Nigeria to inquire about their need for financial products throughout this pandemic.
According to a Nigerian quantitative financial and economic analyst, Uchenna Ukpe, brands must take advantage of the pandemic and economic crisis.
“Now is the time to invest. People are spending less, which is bad for their social and daily lives but good for their wallets,” Ukpe said.
He said any extra cash could be an opportunity to invest in assets, shares, and even savings.
The survey also looked at the use of mobile money. In some parts of the continent, COVID-19 is viewed as a catalyst for mobile money growth. But in phone-packed Nigeria, with a huge unbanked population, the country lags behind when it comes to mobile banking take-up.
When the country went into lockdown in April, banks shut their doors. This left thousands without access to hard cash to buy commodities. An opportunity for mobile money investment.
According to the World Bank, Nigeria has over 200 million mobile subscriptions but less than 6% of Nigerians use their handsets to transact using mobile money.
Data from Kasi Insight also revealed that despite the increase in the population of mobile money, cash remains the king.
In fact, of the 3,323 people polled, 41% use mobile money less compared to pre-Covid-19 while 27% said they are using mobile money more and 25% have kept their usage the same. Only 7% don’t know or don’t use mobile money.
Ukpe said mobile banking in the country is a far tougher market to crack.
“This is a huge challenge considering that 80 million Nigerians do not have access to financial services. Mobile money is supposed to be filling the gap left by banks and ATMs in this country,” Ukpe said.
He said companies must do more to educate communities about how they can use these financial products. “You can’t just put out billboards, radio, and TV adverts and expect people to be comfortable. There is a need to talk to consumers and educate them,” he added.
Recently MTN, Africa’s largest mobile phone group, grew the number of MTN Mobile Money (MoMo) users on its network, a trend that has accelerated during the COVID-19 pandemic.
MoMo initiative is innovatively designed to benefit Nigerians, provide financial inclusion and take the country to the next level of digital financial service.
On credit cards, the Kasi survey revealed that the usage for the majority (37%) has not changed since the start of the pandemic while 28% of consumers say they use their credit cards more.
The survey also showed that consumers’ usage of loans has been high especially among males. Of those who said they were using more loans, 76% were men. Despite the need by most consumers, millennial males have been the highest 72% when it comes to usage of loans followed by Gen X (19%), Gen Z (5%) and Baby Boomers at 3%.
When it comes to usage of insurance products, 1 in 4 respondent say they purchase more in insurance throughout this pandemic. Lastly about a quarter of respondents also say they are investing more since the pandemic started.
According to the survey, nearly seven-in-10 (69%) of millennials said they would spend more on credit cards this holiday. These are followed by 18% of Gen X, 7% Gen Z and 6% baby boomers. 16.53% of Gen X and 8% of Gen Z said they will spend the same amount.
The commissioning was done by the Executive Governor of Ogun State, Prince Dapo Abiodun, in the company of other distinguished guests such as the Honourable Minister for Trade and Investment, Otunba Niyi Adebayo and the Awujale of Ijebuland, Oba Sikiru Adetona.
This PET line has the capacity to produce 24,000 bottles of drinks per hour. It is designed with the latest technology and is fully automated to meet world-class safety and quality requirements.
It is also expected to become a central supply and a critical enabler to Nigerian Breweries’ plans to export its drinks outside Nigeria to West Africa and beyond, satisfying the refreshment needs of millions of Nigerians and Africans.
“We are the State with the largest concentration of industries in diverse sectors of the economy. Indeed, today’s event is another testimonial to the successes of our Administration’s business policies and programmes to improve on our Ease of Doing Business ranking to ensure that new investments are attracted into our dear State just as existing businesses are thriving”.
A recent challenge study in non-human primates performed with an improved antigen formulation demonstrated that the vaccine candidate could protect against lung pathology and lead to rapid viral clearance from the nasal passages and lungs, within 2 to 4 days.
These results increase the Companies confidence in the capacity of the adjuvanted recombinant platform to deliver a highly efficient vaccine for all adults.
Sanofi’s recombinant technology and GSK’s pandemic adjuvant are established vaccine platforms that have proven successful against influenza. The recombinant technology offers the advantages of stability at temperatures used for routine vaccines, the ability to generate high and sustained immune responses, and the potential to prevent virus transmission.
“We care greatly about public health which is why we are disappointed by the delay announced today, but all our decisions are and will always be driven by science and data. We have identified the path forward and remain confident and committed to bringing a safe and efficacious COVID-19 vaccine.
Following these results and the latest encouraging new preclinical data, we will now work to further optimize our candidate to achieve this goal,” said Thomas Triomphe, Executive Vice President and Head of Sanofi Pasteur. “No single pharma company can make it alone; the world needs more than one vaccine to fight the pandemic.”
“The results of the study are not as we hoped. Based on previous experience and other collaborations, we are confident that GSK’s pandemic adjuvant system, when coupled with a COVID-19 antigen, can elicit a robust immune response with an acceptable reactogenicity profile.
It is also clear that multiple vaccines will be needed to contain the pandemic. Our aim now is to work closely with our partner Sanofi to develop this vaccine, with an improved antigen formulation, for it to make a meaningful contribution to preventing COVID-19.”
The Companies plan a Phase 2b study expected to start in February 2021 with support from the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA), part of the HHS Office of the Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response (ASPR) under contract W15QKN-16-9-1002.
The study will include a proposed comparison with an authorized COVID-19 vaccine. If data are positive, a global Phase 3 study could start in Q2 2021. Positive results from this study would lead to regulatory submissions in the second half of 2021, hence delaying the vaccine’s potential availability from mid-2021 to Q4 2021.
Sanofi and GSK adjuvanted recombinant protein-based vaccine candidate was selected in July 2020 by U.S. government’s Operation Warp Speed in order to accelerate its development and manufacturing.
The Companies have updated Governments and the European Commission where a contractual commitment to purchase the vaccine has been made.
The interim Phase 1/2 results showed a level of neutralizing antibody titers after two doses comparable to sera from patients who recovered from COVID-19, balanced cellular response in adults aged 18 to 49 years, but insufficient neutralizing antibody titers in adults over the age of 50.
The candidate showed transient but higher than expected levels of reactogenicity likely due to the suboptimal antigen formulation, with no serious adverse events related to the vaccine candidate.
The most favourable results were observed in the group which tested the highest antigen concentration, combined with the GSK adjuvant, showing neutralization titers in 88% of participants.
Seroconversion was observed in 89.6% of the 18 to 49 age group; 85% in the >50 age group; and 62.5% in the >60 age group.
The Phase 1/2 clinical study is a randomized, double-blind and placebo-controlled study designed to evaluate the safety, reactogenicity and immunogenicity (immune response) of the COVID-19 vaccine candidate.
A total of 441 healthy adults participated in the study, across 10 investigational sites in the United States. The participants received one or two doses of the vaccine candidate or placebo at 21 days apart.
Full results of the Phase 1/2 study will be published as soon as all data are available, following the peer-reviewed publication process.
A recent preclinical study using a highly virulent challenge in non-human primates showed the high ability for the vaccine to protect against lung pathology and reduce the virus in the nose and lungs within 2 to 4 days. Results from this pre-clinical study confirm the strong ability of the vaccine candidate to stop the replication of the virus with an optimal antigen formulation.
These data are being prepared for submission to a peer-reviewed publication.
In addition to the recombinant protein-based vaccine in collaboration with GSK, Sanofi is developing a messenger RNA vaccine in partnership with Translate Bio. Preclinical data showed that two immunizations of the mRNA vaccine induced high neutralizing antibody levels that are comparable to the upper range of those observed in infected humans.
Sanofi expects the Phase 1/2 study to start in Q1 2021, with earliest potential approval in the second half of 2021.
Major losers were at the belly of the curve where offers jumped almost 120bps above yesterday’s levels as most of the market trades settled around 7.25%. The 2049s and 2050s also expanded with only a 30bps yield movement while most of its market trade was between 7.50%-7.60%. Consequently, yields expanded by an average of 83bps across the benchmark curve.
We expect the market to stay bearish for tomorrow, albeit with low trading volumes from market participants.
The Treasury space started off the day mostly offered with little bids to trigger enjoyable market activities. Some activity picked up as the session wore on, notably on the newly issued 1yr NTB bill 09 Dec 2021 paper, which ended trading in the 1.50%-1.60% range. We also saw some interest in short-dated bills, which was offered around 0.30% levels.
We expect the market to remain calm for Tomorrow, with some order-driven requests on selected papers expected.
System liquidity remained very liquid, closing the day at approximately N513.29bn positive. However, we saw a slight movement in OBB and OVN, increasing by an average of c.40bps to close the day at 1.00% and 1.44%, respectively.
We expect rates to close the week at these low levels, as there are no significant outflows expected to hit the market in the course of trading tomorrow.
The Nigerian IEFX window was relatively stable as the rate changed slightly compared to yesterday, although the volumes traded at this level were very scanty.
At the parallel market, the Naira lost approximately N2.50K in both cash and transfer window to close at N475.00/$ and N488.00/$ respectively, while the CBN Spot and SMIS rates remained static at N379.00/$ and 380.69/$ respectively.
The NIGERIA Sovereign tickers opened flat, with very low trades passing through the Nigeria space. However, we saw a bit of interest for mid-dated papers 31s and 32s, in particular, causing yields to compress slightly by an average c.1bps across the sovereign yield curve.
The NIGERIA Corps tickers also traded on a weak note, although yields remained unchanged D/D for most tracked papers.
At the belly of the curve, the 2034s and 2036s papers started off showing its offers at 5.15% but expanded to about 5.50% levels by mid-day, although the few bids quoted stayed at the 7.00% level, making it challenging to deal. We also saw little action on the 2029s maturity, which open day offered at around 4.75% level but eventually traded around the mid 4.80% level.
Although market momentum is less likely to improve in the short term, we hope to see more interest from local investors as yields improve across the benchmark curve.
The Treasury Bills maintained its one-way mood, remaining actively bearish on the mid and long-dated bills. The market opened extremely wide, indicating participants’ apprehension about the flurry of offers in the market. March and June bills were offered at 0.30% levels but expanded slightly by c.10bps by the business’s close, while Oct-Nov bills stayed offered at 0.50% for most of the trading period.
We expect the treasury bills space to remain less active as market participants continue to anticipate the possible impact of the special bills announced by the Apex bank.
System Liquidity improved by over 100% compared to yesterday closing as inflows from OMO maturities hit the system. Consequently, OBB and OVN rates dropped by approximately .c47bps closing the day at 0.83% and 1.33%, respectively.
We expect rates to remain stable in the interim, as there are no major outflows expected to hit the market in the course of the week.
The IEFX markets had a regular session today, as the market continues to receive inflows from APEX bank while maintaining its sale rate within the range of N395/$1-N396/$1.The Cash/transfer window, on the other hand, opened the day lower compared to yesterday, closing at N467/$1 and N484/$1 respectively, however, depreciating by an average of N2.75k to close the day at N471.50/$1 and N485/$1 singly.
We expect the IEFX window to maintain its stability in the short-term which might eventually induce the appreciation of Naira in the parallel market,
The NIGERIA Sovereigns opened the trading week with little changes/activity recorded. Yields on the sovereign curve weakened by a single basis point, as sentiments towards the papers aligned with another consecutive session.
The NIGERIA Corporates stayed quiet for most of the trading session although we noted slight interest for the recently issued FBN 2025 paper albeit in retail size.
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