Investment

FG Generates N5m From Abuja-kaduna Train Route In 2 Weeks

Published

4 years ago

August 15, 2016

The Abuja-Kaduna train service recorded N5 million within the first two weeks of operation, Fidet Ikhiria, acting managing director of the Nigerian Railway Corporation (NRC), has revealed.

Ikhiria made this known to NAN while travelling on the train from Abuja to Kaduna on Saturday.

The federal government invested$1.46 billion on the train service, which was inaugurated by President Muhammadu Buhari on July 26.

Ikhiria said he did not have record of the daily income of the service.

“In the first week of operation, we made N2.2 million; in the second week, we made N2.9 million,” he said.

“This is the third week of operation; the last week report showed that we had almost 5,000 passengers in six days.”We have capacity for 320 passengers per trip; for now, the maximum we can carry per trip is 320.”

So, for a day, the maximum number of passengers we can haveis 1000.”

Ikhiria said fencing of the tracks would commence before the end of August.

He acknowledged that there were some operational lapses on the route, but said the management was working toward addressing them.

Ikhira said some of the staff had yet to get used to the seat numbering, as it was different from what was obtainable in the previous trains.

According to the managing director, the coaches are overwhelmed by the number of people coming on board.

“Some passengers with economy class tickets are coming to sit on the first class coach because the economy class is filled up,” he said.”

We are going to do more enlightenment on this at the station and communities levels.”On the speed of the train, he said the parameter for speed was not coach but track which, according to him, was designed according to specification.

He said the train moved at 90 kilometres per hour from the initial 70 kilometres per hour but would get to 150 kilometres per hour in due course.

“The slow speed of the train is to avoid accidents as people living close to the tracks have yet to get used to the movement of train,” he explained.

Ikhiria said efforts were being made to beef up security at the stations and on board the train.

“By next week, our scanners will be in place; I am also discussing with the Nigerian Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) to deploy more men,” he said.

“We have armed policemen on board and some security personnelwithout uniform.”

He added that efforts were also being made to install internet facilities in the train.

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Samed Olukoya

CEO/Founder Investors King Ltd, a foreign exchange research analyst, contributing author on New York-based Talk Markets and Investing.com, with over a decade experience in the global financial markets.

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Finance

Global Deal Activity Down by 4.5% in October 2020

Published

2 weeks ago

November 16, 2020

Temitayo Sikiru

A total of 6,304 deals were announced globally during October 2020, which is a decrease of 4.5% over the 6,598 deals announced during September, according to GlobalData, a leading data, and analytics company. An analysis of GlobalData’s Financial Deals Database revealed that the deal volume during October remained below the monthly average of Q3 2020.

Aurojyoti Bose, the Lead Analyst at GlobalData, comments: “After demonstrating growth for four consecutive months, the deal volume shrank in October. The decline in deal activity could be attributed to inconsistencies across different regions. The APAC region remained a weak spot, while deal activity remained mostly flat in North America, and the Middle East and Africa (MEA) region witnessed growth in deal activity.”

North America attracted the highest number of investments, followed by APAC, Europe, the MEA, and South, and Central America.

The uncertain global economic landscape lowered the deal volume in October for major markets such as the US, Germany, Australia, France, India, and China compared to the previous month. On the contrary, the UK, Japan, South Korea, and Canada saw growth of 15.6%,14.9%, 3.8%, and 2.2%, respectively, in October as compared to September’s deal volume.

Bose continued: “Most of the deal types witnessed a decline in volume during October compared to the previous month. Private equity, equity offerings, venture financing, debt offerings, and partnership deals volume decreased by a respective 2.4%, 9.1%, 9.8%, 14.6%, and 24.6% – while the deal volume for mergers and acquisitions (M&A) increased by 7.2%.”

Investment

Japaul to Invest in Chinese Firm H&H to Deepen Mining and Exploration Business

Published

2 weeks ago

November 15, 2020

Samed Olukoya

Japaul Gold & Ventures Plc (Japaul), formerly known as Japaul Oil and Maritime Services Plc, announced it has gotten approval in principle from H&H Mines Limited to invest in or acquire shares in the company once it concluded its fundraising exercise.

According to a statement released through the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE), H&H Mines Limited has several licenses, which include two major Mining Leases for 25 years renewable.

The statement noted that extensive exploration has been done on the Mining properties and the last lap of the exploration works is core drilling. This, it said will allow Japaul knows the measured Minerals Reserve contained in the Mine, which it claimed contain Gold, Silver, Lead, Zinc, etc.

Japaul further explained that the need to get the drilling done was what led H&H Mining to engage the services of Xiang Hui International Mining Company Nigeria.

“Since Japaul will eventually be part of H&H Mines Limited, it was necessary that Japaul is carried along on the kind of Contract of Drilling to be entered into, and that was why the signing of the Drilling Contract between the Chinese Company and H&H Mines Limited was concluded at Japaul’s Head Office,” the company stated.

The drilling is expected to be concluded in the next 12 months and within this time, Japaul is expected to have concluded the Fund Raising and formalise her involvement in the Mining.

The company added that Canadian reports revealed that there are huge gold, silver, lead, etc deposits, but it is drilling that will show the actual reserve.

Investment

Africa Investment Forum (AIF) Rescheduled to Hold in 2021 – AfDB

Published

3 weeks ago

November 6, 2020

Temitayo Sikiru

Investment Forum to Now Hold in 2021 in a Bid to Curb Possible Second Wave of COVID-19

The Africa Investment Forum scheduled to hold in November 2020 in Johannesburg, South Africa has been rescheduled to hold in2021 as a result of the ongoing global health pandemic.

This announcement was made in a statement by AfDB on Wednesday. The African Development Bank (AfDB) and the Africa Investment Forum founding partners agreed to the postponement of the annual three-day investment market place.

Considering the negative effect of Covid-19 on the global economy, agreement by the two bodies was made after a careful assessment of the impact of COVID-19 on global travels, investments, observing the social distancing rules and curbing the likely possible risk of a second wave.

In the statement, the bank stated that through the forum innovative digital platforms, it would track investments, source for new deals, progress on financial closure of transactions and other existing deals.

“At the 2019 Africa Investment Forum, 57 deals valued at $67.7bn were tabled for discussions. Fifty-two deals worth $40.1bn secured investment interest.

“In July this year, the AIF Founding partners pledged to strengthen strategic partnership engagement and commitments for Africa Investment Forum Market Days 2021, to help ‘reboot investments in Africa.’ They underscored the need to boost local manufacturing while leveraging the continent’s vast resources to unlock investment.”

In the statement, Africa Investment Forum objectives are achieved through the forum’s four pillars; Closing, Connecting, Engaging and Investment Tracking.