The Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission says it has given approval to 22 companies to take over the distribution and installation of prepaid meters.

According to a statement by Usman Abba-Arabi, NERC’s general manager, public affairs, ‘No Objection’ qualifies intending investors to participate in the meter procurement process in the Nigerian Electricity Supply Industry (NESI).

The approved firms are Huawei Technology Company Nigeria Ltd, Bilview Energy Ltd, Chintech Electro Nigeria Ltd, Holley Metering Ltd, MEMCOL, and Meron Nigeria Ltd.

The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has made available 210 million dollars to meet customers’ requests in various segments of the foreign exchange market. CBN’s Acting Director, Corporate Communications, Mr Isaac Okorafor, who made this known in a statement in Abuja, Nigeria’s capital explained that the CBN offered 100 million dollars to authorized dealers in the wholesale segment of the market.

The Government of Korea and the African Development Bank have issued a Joint Declaration following the conclusion of the Ministerial Roundtable of the Korea-Africa Economic Cooperation (KOAFEC) Conference taking place during the African Development Bank's 53rd Annual Meetings in which Korea announced a $5-billion bilateral financial assistance package for Africa.

A total of N701 billion has been allocated to the federal government, states and local governments as revenue for the month of April 2018 in Nigeria. The Permanent Secretary of Nigeria’s Ministry of Finance, Mr Mahmoud Isa-Dutse, who disclosed this in Abuja, the country’s capital said that the amounts shared were the outcome of Federal Account Allocation Committee (FAAC) meeting.

The African Development Bank (AfDB) disbursed 7.81 billion dollars to support the structural transformation of African countries in 2017. According to AfDB’s Annual Report, released during the Annual Meetings in Busan, South Korea, the disbursements were 15 percent increase over 2016 and the highest on record for the Bank.

In China, the People's Bank of China set the set the reference rate for the yuan against the dollar, the mid-point from which the currency is allowed to trade, at 6.3773 versus the previous day's 6.3799. The USD/CNY pair gained 0.10% to trade at 6.3729.

Oil prices have broken out of a "sweet spot" for global economic growth and could herald a U.S. recession if they keep rising, UBS warns.

The Swiss investment bank on Tuesday joined a chorus of financial institutions in pondering the economic impact of oil prices at $100 a barrel. Crude futures are trading near their highest levels in 3½ years, bolstered by strong demand, supply cuts from big producers, and mounting geopolitical tension in the Middle East and Venezuela.

The African Development Bank (AfDB) disbursed 7.81 billion dollars to support the structural transformation of African countries in 2017. According to AfDB’s Annual Report, released during the Annual Meetings in Busan, South Korea, the disbursements were 15 percent increase over 2016 and the highest on record for the Bank.

As Pension Fund Administrators (PFAs) begin to align their investment portfolio with the Multi-Fund Structure regulation as required by the National Pension Commission (PenCom), it might be another game changer in favour of Nigerian stocks.

PenCom recently released the amended regulation on investment of Pension Fund Assets for the pension industry and introduced a Multi-Fund Structure, which replaces the “one-size-fits-all” structure that puts all active contributors into one Retirement Savings Account (RSA) Fund without consideration for age or risk profile of such contributors.

The multi-fund structure is a new system of fund management that allows the splitting of the RSA ‘Active’ fund into three different funds; Fund I, Fund II and Fund II. The ‘Retiree’ fund remains and it’s called Fund IV.

The Nigerian Ports Authority has stated that all debts owed it by the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation from 2017 to date, amounting to about N2.1bn, for services rendered to the national oil firm are to be settled this week. This was contained in a statement made available to our correspondent by the NPA on Wednesday.

Nigeria's central bank policy-setting committee voted to retain all key lending rates at its 261st meeting, the second meeting in 2018. The monetary policy committee retained interest rate (monetary policy rate) which was at 14%, Cash Reserves Ratio at 22.5%, Liquidity Ratio which was left at 30%; and the Asymmetric Window which was left at +200 and -500 basis points around the MPR.