Sen. Udoma Udo Udoma, Minister of Budget and National Planning on Tuesday, said the focus labs of the Nigeria Economic Recovery and Growth Plan (ERGP) has identified 164 projects for investment across the country. Udoma disclosed this at the Open Day of Focus Labs of ERGP in Abuja organized by the Vice President, Yemi Osinbajo, to mark the end of the first phase of the Labs.

Nigeria is leading South Africa in net foreign reserves as that of the West African country hits $47.37 billion in March to beat South Africa which has $43.15 billion. Nigeria which recently recovered from economic recession with less than $21 billion in foreign reserves has built up its reserves massively over one and half years. The increase in the country’s foreign reserves is reported to have stabilised its foreign exchange which had gone haywire in the past.

The Nigerian Senate on Tuesday passed the repeal and re-enactment of the Companies and Allied Matters Act, which the legislative body termed the “biggest business reform bill in Nigeria in over 28 years.” The Senate shared the benefits of the bill on their Medium page and it includes, making Nigeria’s business environment as competitive as its counterparts around the world.

The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) on Tuesday boosted the inter-bank foreign exchange market with another 210 million dollars, the bank’s acting Director, Corporate Communications, Mr Isaac Okorafor, said. Okorafor said in a statement that the apex bank offered 100 million dollars to authorised dealers in the wholesale segment of the market.

The aggressive liquidity mop up operation conducted by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) last week is expected to persist this week as inflow of N330 billion boosts interbank money market liquidity. In a bid to tackle excess liquidity in the interbank money market, worsened last week by inflow of N290 billion, the apex bank mopped up N454 billion from the market by selling secondary market (Open Market Operations, OMO) treasury bills.

In the trading day on Tuesday on the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) maintained a downward trend with the All-Share Index declining by 0.04 per cent. The index shed 17.02 points or 0.04 per cent to close at 41,155.80 compared to 41,172.82 recorded on Monday due to profit taking.

Abuja Displaces Lagos As Foreign Investors Preferred Destination

According to data from the National Bureau of Statistics, Abuja has displaced Lagos as the city with the largest inflow of foreign capital.

In its report, Capital Importation (Q1), the NBS said Abuja reported inflow of $3.54 billion, up from the $2.68 billion reported in the fourth quarter of 2017.

In the first quarter of 2018, Lagos reported capital importation of $2.67 billion, an increase from the $2.55 billion reported in the fourth quarter of 2017.

Organised Labour on Monday said it has presented fresh demand for the new National Minimum Wage for workers to the tripartite committee earlier set up by the Federal Government. The General Secretary, Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) Dr. Peter Ozo-Eson, who disclosed this in an interview in Abuja, said the earlier demand by labour, which was presented two years ago, had been overtaken by the present economic realities in the country.

The Minister of Finance, Mrs. Kemi Adeosun, Thursday, in Abuja, held high-level discussions with visiting World Bank Mission, assuring that Nigeria would not be complacent on account of rising crude oil prices. According to her, the government’s priority was to return the economy to growth and that having achieved that objective, it has been working to accelerate growth rate.

The Office of the Vice President on Sunday issued a statement detailing mind-boggling corruption during the Jonathan era, describing the revelation as a tip of the iceberg. NAN reports that the details were published last night in a reaction to the accusations by spin doctors of former President Goodluck Jonathan, who claimed Osinbajo made unsubstantiated allegations about grand corruption during the Jonathan era.