Daily Watch – Piracy declines off Nigerian waters, Absa plans Nigeria expansion

The Anambra Motor Manufacturing Company will start manufacturing vehicles in Nigeria after its re-branding. CEO, Godwin Ubaka Okeke, said that the firm is partnering with Chinese company, Dongfeng, after it parted ways with Mercedes Benz over certain unresolved contractual terms. ANAMMCO was a leading commercial vehicles assembling, sales and services firm in the country. ANAMMCO’s new partner, a Chinese auto-manufacturer, has annual truck production capacity of 7,500 and bus manufacturing capacity of 1000, a figure that ANAMMCO hopes to surpass at some point in Nigeria. Okeke added that with the current strategic production and distribution partnership, that several sales and service network points for Dongfeng’s brand of vehicles had been opened across the country, and the bus ranges will soon be introduced into the Nigerian market.

South African lender, Absa, is planning to expand its bank-focused investment in Nigeria in the second half of 2019, chief executive of the division, Charles Russon Said. The Nigerian expansion would be focused on Absa’s corporate and investment bank. Russon told Reuters that he had requested his team to develop a strategy within the coming months for the expansion. Absa, which has a representative office and securities license in Nigeria, is making effort to make its name as a stand-alone bank after separating from Britain’s Barclays. The lender has been touting Nigeria as a market central to its growth strategy since 2018, but has given scant details on its plans. The bank wants to double its share of revenues on the African continent to 12 percent – a target the CIB is central to achieving. Planning its own expansion in Nigeria and other markets, such as Angola and Egypt, Russon said the lender would look to offer some services in such countries in partnership with French investment bank Societe Generale.

Piracy attacks off Nigeria’s coast decreased to 14 in Q1 2019 compared to 22 incidents recorded in same period last year, data from the International Maritime Bureau has shown. The development is as a result of Nigerian Navy’s efforts to actively respond to reported incidents by dispatching patrol boats, the London-based body that tracks attacks on sea vessels said. This corresponded with a global decline in incidents of piracy. The IMB however, noted that despite these efforts, Nigerian waters still remain a hotspot for piracy, and risky for vessels, especially the port of Lagos where four incidents have been reported lately. Detailing attacks on Nigerian waters, the IMB’s Piracy Reporting Centre said that 27 vessels were boarded, seven vessels were fired upon and four attempted attacks occurred in Q1 2019. No vessels were reported as hijacked for the first time since the first quarter of 1994. On the Gulf of Guinea where Nigeria is a prominent nation, the IMB reported that it represented a high number of piracy and armed robbery attacks at sea, with 22 incidents reported in Q1 2019. The region also accounted for all of the worldwide crew kidnappings as 21 crew members were kidnapped across five separate incidents. Incidents were reported in the coastal countries of Benin, Cameroon, Ghana, Ivory Coast, Liberia, Nigeria and Togo. 

FMDQ OTC Securities Exchange recorded a turnover of ₦63.25 trillion in Q1 2019. The figures, FMDQ said, excluded primary market auctions in Treasury bills and bonds. It added that the data, which was collated from the weekly trade data submissions by FMDQ dealing member banks, represented trades executed among the dealing member banks, dealing member banks and clients and dealing member banks and the CBN. Trading activities in T-bills contributed the largest to overall turnover in two months, accounting for 43.32 percent of the market. Forex accounted for 34.92 percent, while repurchase agreements/buy-backs product categories accounted for 16.16 percent. Bonds and unsecured placements and takings represented 5.16 percent and 0.44 percent, respectively, of overall market turnover. Last year, the market turnover of the exchange hit an all-time high of ₦182.86 trillion from the ₦142.03 trillion recorded in 2017, as aggregate transactions in the fixed income and currency market increased by 28.75 percent. The FMDQ has seen a consistent increase in its market turnover in the last five years of operation, except in 2016 when the turnover dropped from ₦137.43 trillion in 2015 to ₦113.66 trillion.