Nigeria | Moody’s downgrades Nigeria’s sovereign issuer rating with a stable outlook

Nigeria | Moody’s downgrades Nigeria’s sovereign issuer rating with a stable outlook

LAGOS, Nigeria, Capital Markets in Africa — Moody’s Investors Service has today downgraded Nigeria’s long-term issuer ratings to B1 from Ba3 and has assigned a stable outlook, concluding the review for downgrade initiated on March 4th 2016. The key drivers of today’s rating action are as follows: 1) Increased external vulnerability brought about by the prospect of lower-for-longer oil prices; 2) Execution risk in the transition to a less oil-dependent federal budget, and the implications…

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Exotix Says Nigeria is `Uninvestable’ Due to Currency Policy

Exotix Says Nigeria is `Uninvestable’ Due to Currency Policy

LAGOS, Nigeria, Capital Markets in Africa — Nigerian foreign-exchange controls are undermining political reforms by President Muhammadu Buhari and making the country “uninvestable” for buyers who measure returns in dollars, Exotix Partners LLP said. The reorganization of the state oil company’s structure, changes to the nation’s bureaucracy and Buhari’s efforts to curb corruption all point to “root and branch” changes to the country’s governance structures, Hasnain Malik, head of frontier markets strategy at London-based Exotix, said in an interview…

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Nigeria Economics Loses to Politics as Buhari Takes Naira Stand

Nigeria Economics Loses to Politics as Buhari Takes Naira Stand

LAGOS, Nigeria, Capital Markets in Africa — History is repeating itself in Nigeria, where the more President Muhammadu Buhari is urged to devalue the naira, the more he digs in his heels. Investors are beginning to surmise that politics — rather than economics — will determine the currency’s immediate future. Even as growth slows, inflation rises and investors flee Africa’s biggest oil producer, analysts in a Bloomberg survey are backing away from estimates a devaluation will take place…

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Nigerian MSCI Exit May Risk $500 Million Holdings, RenCap Says

Nigerian MSCI Exit May Risk $500 Million Holdings, RenCap Says

Lagos, Nigeria, Capital Markets in Africa — MSCI Inc.’s decision to consider dropping Nigeria from its Frontier Markets Index has put $500 million of stock investments in Africa’s biggest economy under threat, according to Renaissance Capital Ltd. Investors following the index have $500 million staked in Nigeria, half what they would have if they were properly tracking the benchmark, and those holdings are “under threat” should MSCI exclude Nigeria, according to Charles Robertson, chief economist at…

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Nigeria | International Oil Companies Support Fuel Imports with US$200 Million

LAGOS, Nigeria, Capital Markets in Africa — International oil companies in Nigeria have agreed to provide about US$200 million to support fuel imports and end shortages, Emmanuel Kachikwu, Petroleum Minister of State said. “I have been able to convince the upstream oil companies to provide foreign exchange buffers over the next one year for those who’re bringing in products,” Kachikwu said in video posted on his Facebook page on Thursday. “So we have tied Total upstream…

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Finance | Forte Oil Nigeria Plans to Raise US$500 Million for Expansion

Finance | Forte Oil Nigeria Plans to Raise US$500 Million for Expansion

LAGOS, Nigeria, Capital Markets in Africa — Forte Oil Nigeria Plc, said it plans to raise as about 100 billion naira (US$502 million) in equity or debt in 2016 as it aims to double profit and expand amidst Nigerian economic slowdown and commodity slump. The company plans to get approval this month and raise the capital by the third quarter, Chief Financial Officer Julius Omodayo-Owotuga said in an interview. The company is “already looking at” acquiring retail…

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Investment | Nigerian Ntel Pursues US$1 Billion Investment for Mobile-Broadband Growth

Investment | Nigerian Ntel Pursues US$1 Billion Investment for Mobile-Broadband Growth

LAGOS, Nigeria, Capital Markets in Africa — Nigerian Internet provider Ntel is looking more than US$1 billion to invest in 4G mobile broadband by 2020, to take advantage of a rising number of smartphone users in the country. “We are speaking to investors and to banks who are interested in a growth story for Africa,” Chief Executive Officer Kamar Abass, 51, said in an interview on March 31. “We are seeing the very beginnings of a…

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