Nigeria’s inflation rate stood at 11.1 per cent year-on-year in February 2011. This is lower than 12.1 per cent recorded in the previous month in the new Composite Consumer Price Index (CPI) series released by the nation’s bureau of statistics. The monthly change of the CPI was 0.96 per cent improvement when compared with January 2011. The percentage change in…

FirstRand, South Africa’s No. 2 banking group, is in advanced talks with Nigeria’s Sterling Bank over making a strategic investment in the lender, banking sources familiar with the deal said. Managing director, Sizwe Nxasana, who took over the reins of FirstRand over a year ago, told Reuters last year the South African bank was looking to invest “meaningful amounts of…

Demand for foreign exchange is gradually edging up, as the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) offered $1.3 billion so far this month at the official Wholesale Dutch Auction System (WDAS) window. Even though there are five more auctions for the month of March, the amount so far traded exceeds the average traded figure since the beginning of the year. A…

The National Agency for Food Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC), on Monday, sealed 15 drug stores in Calabar for selling counterfeit, expired, and banned drugs. The closure was effected in a surprise raid by a team led by Abisola Adekoya, the agency’s deputy director of Ports Inspection. Mrs. Adekoya said she raised six groups to carry out checks against non…

AngloGold Ashanti, the world’s third largest gold producer, said on Tuesday heavy rains in Australia have affected output at its Sunrise Dam mine. The company said in a statement that while open pit mining has resumed, underground operations remained suspended for safety reasons. AngloGold said it expects that Sunrise Dam, located 56 kilometres (35 miles) south of Laverton in Western…

A former employee of the Intercontinental Bank Plc was on Monday arraigned before an Igbosere Magistrates Court in Lagos over alleged forgery and theft of N554, 200. Twenty-six-year-old Ajayi Oluwasegun is accused of forging the signature of a bank customer and withdrawing the sum from his account. Mr. Oluwasegun, who is standing trial before Magistrate A. A. Famobiwo, pleaded not…

An Abuja High Court on Monday granted the ICPC “one last leave” to arraign a former treasurer of Kwali Area Council, Dauda Musa, over his alleged complicity in a N140 million fraud. Mr. Musa is supposed to have been arraigned with the former chairman of the council, Musa Saleh, since 2009 over their roles in the alleged fraud. The ICPC…

South Africa is talking to the Democratic Republic of Congo to revive a stalled $8-$10 billion 5,000 megawatt hydro power project on the Congo River, South African energy minister, Dipuo Peters, said on Tuesday. Last year, the DRC rejected a proposal by the Western Power Corridor (Westcor), a joint venture between five southern African governments and power utilities, that would…

The Bank of Industry (BoI) and Nigerian Export-Import (NEXIM) Bank have so far received only six applications from prospective beneficiaries of the $200 million (about N30 billion) special fund by the federal government dedicated to the development of the entertainment sector. Since the announcement of the Nigerian Creative and Entertainment Industry Stimulation loans scheme last year, as part of efforts…