Business

Lasaco Assurance Plc has secured regulatory approval to offer agricultural insurance products as the company seeks to diversify its business, expand its market reach, and increase revenue.

The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has partnered with the Nasarawa State Government to strengthen investor protection, improve financial literacy and facilitate the recovery of unclaimed dividends and other investment assets.

The Nigeria Inter-Bank Settlement System (NIBSS) has adopted technology from Transactility to develop its National Payment Stack (NPS), a next-generation instant payments platform designed to strengthen Nigeria’s digital payment infrastructure.

Dangote Petroleum Refinery and Petrochemicals has extended its ₦2.15 trillion initial public offering (IPO) to October 27, 2026, following approval by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), to accommodate rising investor interest across Africa.

The Nigerian Exchange Limited (NGX) opened the week on a bearish note on Monday as the All-Share Index (ASI) declined from 248,363.55 points to close at 247,736.24 points, representing a loss of 0.25 percent.

Zenith Bank founder and former chairman Jim Ovia is set to receive approximately ₦8.70 billion in interim dividends for the first half of 2026, following a 20 percent increase in the bank’s dividend per share.

December Brent crude futures traded at $104.53 a barrel, down 0.2%, in a market update published at 8.58 am WAT. Earlier in the session, Brent had fallen towards $103 as traders assessed the prospect of more Russian fuel reaching international markets. Both figures are intraday prices.

For the FUGAZ banks, such as FirstHoldCo, GTCO, UBA, Access Holdings and Zenith Bank, the focus will be on the durability of core banking income, non-interest income and credit quality. For consumer companies, improving margins will be tested against weaker volume growth, input costs and financing pressures.

Wema Bank’s H1 numbers reveal an institution that is growing rapidly, but whose growth is accompanied by falling earnings per share, a sharp contraction in fee income, rising loan-impairment charges, deteriorating cost efficiency and loan expansion that is running considerably faster than deposit mobilisation.

Data from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) showed that PAYE remained the largest source of tax revenue for state governments, accounting for about 69.5 percent of the N3.79tn collected from taxes during the year.