The extent to which South Africa lags behind its international peers when it comes to corporate stakeholder rights was highlighted in last week’s release by the European Commission of new legislative proposals dealing with shareholder rights. The EU is proposing that shareholders be given binding votes on executive pay and that companies set maximum pay […]
THE United States (U.S.) Justice Department has put some Nigerian banks under the searchlight in the wake of growing terrorism in the country. Specifically, the banks are being investigated to establish their links, if any, with funding of the various terror cells across the continent, particularly Boko Haram. Continue Reading
The Edo State Governor, Adams Oshiomhole, on Thursday cancelled the proposed competency test for teachers in the state. The governor has also recalled the 936 teachers, whose name were deleted from the payroll over certificate discrepancies and age falsification… Continue Reading
Earlier this week the President signed into law the Pension Reform Act 2014 that repeals the old Pension Act of 2004. Overall, the provisions of the new pension act are a step in the right direction but however requires strict enforcement for it to make a difference. Nigeria’s contributory pension scheme has grown at an […]
The Ecobank Group has stated that it is committed to upholding the highest level of corporate governance following the resolution of the board crisis that threatened the pan-African financial institution last year. In line with this commitment, the board of the bank said it had implemented about 80 per cent of the recommendations of the […]
Depositors filed 4,142 fraud related petitions against banks between March 2010 and last May, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has said. Director, Consumer Protection Department (CPD), CBN, Umma Dutse, said the petitions bordered on excess charges, unauthorised deductions, dishonoured cheques, cheque conversion, foreign remittances andAutomated Teller Machine (ATM) frauds. He was delivering a paper […]
The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) yesterday warned that no deposit money bank (DMB) should without its prior approval grant facilities to potential borrowers that are in default of any existing facilities to the tune of N500 million and above. The banking sector regulator also warned development banks and banks in liquidation not to grant […]
The objective of the National Investors Protection Fund (NIPF) being proposed by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is to provide compensation to some class of investors when they suffer loss due to fraud or insolvency of some specified capital market operators. In addition to some of the weaknesses in the guidelines for the NIPF, […]
On Monday June 2014, the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) served a notice to 21 companies planning to de-list them from the stock exchange. The reason given for de-listing is because they contravened the listing requirements of the NSE by failing to file quarterly and annual financial statements for up to two years in some cases. […]
The federal government misused N994.17 billion out of the amount allocated to the various funds dedicated for special purposes from 2007 to 2011, an audit by the Nigeria Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (NEITI) has said. The amounts discovered in the audit are either unremitted or applied for another purpose, the report said. Presenting the report […]
The Nigerian Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (NEITI) audit has uncovered a discrepancy of N33.1 million in its 2011 audit report. The report presented in Abuja yesterday further revealed that the federal government had earned N26.9 billion from solid minerals in 2011 out of which N26.8 billion represented funds paid by companies. Speaking at the public […]
Insurance firms operating in the country have paid about N1.22billion as kidnap and ransom claims on 730 reported cases in the last four years. The Head of Strategy of AIICO Insurance Plc, Mr Olurotimi Aleshinloye, told journalists on Monday that there have been about 164 recorded cases of kidnapping since the beginning of this year. […]
A well-informed consumer population will promote a more resilient banking system. As consumers become more aware of their rights and responsibilities in the system, the tendency for banks to offer unethical and risky products is reduced. At the same time, consumers will be able to understand any product they want to acquire and be able […]
The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission and the Independent Corrupt Practices and other related offences Commission are currently probing 150 organisations and government Ministries, Departments and Agencies for offences related to the violation of the Public Procurement Act, 2007. The Director-General, Bureau of Public Procurement, Mr. Emeka Ezeh, disclosed this in an interview with our […]
THE Nigerian Extractive Industries Transperency Initiative (NEITI) has commenced arrangements to begin a new automation project to ease and fast-track data capturing from the oil, gas and mining sector operators, for its yearly audit programme. The industry watchdog is planning to put up a common platform where data would be gathered for further assessment and […]
A group called Concerned Oil and Gas Professionals has advised President Goodluck Jonathan to consider expulsion of companies that are not Nigerian Content Act compliant. Coordinator of the group, Mr. Ayo Johnson, said in a statement in Lagos that if the activities of these companies are not checked, it would slow down the achievements of […]
The Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) has decided to delist 20 companies for non-compliance with listing requirements. While 15 of the companies are being delisted for failure to file their quarterly and annual financial statements, five others are being delisted for failure to regularise their listing status after being given time to do so. Those being […]
The Lagos State Internal Revenue Service (LIRS) on Wednesday sealed an oil and gas consultancy firm, BakLang Allianz International Ltd., over N4.9 billion tax evasion. Mrs Folasade Coker-Afolayan, the Head, Distrain Unit of LIRS, said that the company defaulted in the remittance of the Personal Income Taxes of their workers. Continue Reading
President Goodluck Jonathan on Thursday constituted an inter-ministerial committee to manage the €167 million (about N36 billion) expected to be returned to Nigeria from the government of the Principality of Liechtenstein as part of the looted funds recovered from the Abacha family. The Minister of Finance, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, confirmed on Thursday in Abuja that Nigeria […]
Nigeria ranked 76th out of 82 countries surveyed in the 2014 version of the Economist’s annual business environment ranking. Nigeria has retained this rank since 2009. The Economist cites corruption, weak infrastructure, deteriorating security and the absence of effective government institutions for Nigeria’s poor performance in the rankings. In a similar vein, a recent survey […]