Daily Watch – Political uncertainty causes 22% slide in stocks, PFAs eye airport infrastructure
3rd September 2018
- Michael Ojo, the country director, Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition, says preliminary research shows that Nigeria is losing up to ₦10 billion to post-harvest damages. “From the information we have, half of our agricultural produce is lost, especially nutritious foods between the harvest and the consumers,” Ojo said. “Some of these food items also perish as a result of not being sold. I think no word can quantify this because over ₦10 billion a year is lost to post-harvest loss because of the perishability of these foods. This is a lost opportunity to those that cannot have access to those foods and to the agricultural sector at large, we really need to look inward to fight these losses.”
- Stock market investors lost values worth more than ₦2.8 trillion (22 per cent of value) to uncertainty within Nigeria’s political space. This value is the six-month decline in market valuation from February’s ₦15.549 trillion, and August’s closing value of ₦12.722 trillion. Also, the All-Share Index (ASI) declined by 8,482.09 points or 24 per cent to 34,848.45 points from 43,330.54 points achieved as at February 28, 2018. Reacting to this decline, investors urged the political class to moderate their activities and utterances by acting in such a manner that will boost investors’ confidence and grow the economy. Sam Onuokwe, the General Secretary of the Association of Stockbroking Houses of Nigeria, said that the political tension and uncertainties witnessed in the country is currently affecting investors’ sentiments, asset valuations, and portfolio allocation. According Onuokwe, foreign portfolio investors and their indigenous counterparts have embarked on massive share sell off and other financial instruments, despite improved performances of many listed securities.
- Pension Funds Administrators have continued to raise their investments in infrastructure and are considering investing in Nigeria’s airports as assets under their management increase. The Pension Funds Administrators have raised their investments in infrastructure to ₦11.36 billion, according to the NBS. As of the end of June, the total funds under the Contributory Pension Scheme stood at ₦8.23 trillion. The MD, Sigma Pensions, Dave Uduanu, told Punch newspaper that the operators are working with development finance institutions on how to create support for investible projects. “The pension operators are looking at forming a consortium in such areas for investment because those are large-scale investments, which are beyond the capacity of any one pension fund,” he said.
- Aero Contractors says it has expanded its operations with the delivery of more aircraft to its fleet. Ado Sanusi, CEO of the company, said the number of flights to Abuja from Port Harcourt, Sokoto, Asaba, Port Harcourt and Kano from Lagos have been increased. He said the airline will as from September 17 start flying daily on the Abuja-Port Harcourt-Abuja route. Sanusi said the airline will also increase flights from three times weekly to three daily flights on the Lagos-Abuja-Lagos and Lagos-Port Harcourt routes. “The airline has also increased its Lagos-Kano flights, which at present is five times a week by adding another flight on Sundays,” he said. Sanusi explained that the airline, which operates Lagos-Asaba-Abuja-Lagos flights six times a week, has added another flight on Saturday for Lagos-Asaba-Lagos only.