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Nigerian Bank UBA Sees African Units Making Up 50% of Profit

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  • Nigerian Bank UBA Sees African Units Making Up 50% of Profit

Nigerian lender United Bank for Africa Plc expects its operations in 18 other African countries to account for half of its earnings over the next three years.

The Lagos-based bank injected more than $100 million into its units in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Benin, Ivory Coast, Tanzania and Mozambique to help them expand, UBA Chief Financial Officer Ugochukwu Nwaghodoh said in an April 15 interview in Lagos, Nigeria’s commercial hub. The cash, pumped into the operations over July and August, will start having a “full effect” on income from this year, he said.

UBA expects contributions from its foreign branches to increase from 45 percent last year even as the operations in its home market continue to grow, Nwaghodoh said.

Nigeria’s third-largest lender by revenue raised $500 million selling Eurobonds last year to fund its expansion as the economy of Africa’s biggest oil producer recovered from a 2016 contraction after a slump in crude prices triggered a foreign-currency shortage.

It is targeting an improvement in its return on equity, a measure of profit, to 18 percent this year from 16 percent in 2017, the CFO said. UBA will “defend” its net interest margin in Nigeria amid declining interest rates by reducing what it pays depositors for their savings, Nwaghodoh said.

“The loan-to-deposit ratio today is 60 percent, so I have a lot of liquidity, and can dictate the price at which to take deposits,” he said.

In Ghana, UBA is looking to boost its operations and increase the capital beyond the minimum 400 million cedis ($90 million) that regulators require, Nwaghodoh said. It will bolster the buffers by capitalizing earnings, in which it transfers surplus income to its capital holdings, within the unit for 2017 and mid-year 2018, he said.

UBA’s stock rose 3.2 percent, the biggest increase in more than three weeks, to 11.20 naira at the close in Lagos on Tuesday. The shares have gained 8.7 percent this year, compared with a 6.7 percent increase in the 162-member Nigerian Stock Exchange All Share Index.

Is the CEO and Founder of Investors King Limited. He is a seasoned foreign exchange research analyst and a published author on Yahoo Finance, Business Insider, Nasdaq, Entrepreneur.com, Investorplace, and other prominent platforms. With over two decades of experience in global financial markets, Olukoya is well-recognized in the industry.

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Petrol

There Won’t Be Fuel Scarcity In Nearest Future, Major Marketers Assure Nigerians

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Nigerians have been urged to refrain from panic purchase of Premium Motor Spirit popularly known as petrol.

Major petroleum marketers made this known while assuring the public that there is more than enough petrol supply across the country.

The Chief Executive Officer of the Major Energy Marketers Association of Nigeria, Clement Isong, maintained that sufficient stock is available in the tanks of the Dangote Refinery and the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited.

Isong added that there is a reliable forecast of future supplies for all petroleum products.

Reacting to perceived tightening in the petroleum supply market, the major energy marketers dismissed speculation that there would be shortage of fuel, affirming to the general public and all stakeholders that there is substantial stocks of products in their tanks.

He added that they have access to considerable stocks in the tanks of their suppliers, including Dangote Refinery and NNPC Trading Limited, along with a reliable forecast of future supplies for all petroleum products.

Isong noted that deregulation enables diligent marketers to plan and secure their supply needs in advance, helping prevent shortages.

Consequently, he stated that MEMAN does not anticipate any petrol scarcity in the immediate or near future.

Encouraging Nigerians to refrain from panic buying, the MEMAN CEO assured them that member companies will continue to optimise their supply and logistics to ensure availability and affordability.

Following the NNPC’s increase in petrol prices across the country on Tuesday, long queues were observed at its retail outlets in Lagos and Abuja on Wednesday.

The national oil firm raised the retail price of petrol in Abuja from N1,030 to N1,060 per litre, while in Lagos, the price increased from N998 to N1,025 per litre, sparking widespread criticism from the Organised Private Sector, Civil Society Organisations, and the general public.

Nigerians have faced recurring fuel crises since May this year for various reasons despite government promises to resolve the situation.

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Crude Oil

Oil Prices Rise 2% on Positive Crude Inventories Data, Tight Supply Expectations

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Crude oil gains

Oil prices rose more than 2 percent on Wednesday after data showed crude and inventories fell unexpectedly last week and reports that the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and its allies, OPEC+ may delay a planned oil output increase.

Brent crude futures settled up $1.43, or 2.01 percent, at $72.55 a barrel and the US West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude rose $1.4, or 2.08 percent to $68.61.

The US Energy Information Administration (EIA) reported an inventory draw of a modest half a million barrels for the week to October 25.

The change in oil stocks compared with a build of 5.5 million barrels for the previous week, pressured oil prices at the time.

The American Petroleum Institute (API), meanwhile, on Tuesday reported estimated inventory draws across crude and fuels, helping prices move higher for a time. However, they remained subdued due to expectations of a ceasefire in the Middle East.

The country’s petrol stocks shed 2.7 million barrels in the week to October 25, with production at an average of 9.7 million barrels daily. These figures compared with an inventory build of 900,000 barrels for the previous week, when production stood at an average of 10 million barrels daily.

Pressure also came as the market learned that OPEC+ could delay a planned oil production increase in December by a month or more because of concern over soft oil demand and rising supply.

Traders are betting that OPEC+ will hold off on the planned increase, deferring to Saudi Arabia’s top-down approach since the country acts as the de facto leader of the group and has always stepped in to help the alliance when it is underperforming.

The group is scheduled to raise output by 180,000 barrels per day in December. OPEC+ has cut output by 5.86 million barrels per day, equivalent to about 5.7 per cent of global oil demand.

OPEC Monthly Oil Market Report downgraded demand growth for 2024 to 1.9 million barrels per day while demand forecasts for 2025 slipped another 102,000 barrels per day to 1.6 million barrels per day.

China, meanwhile, ramped up imports by 16 per cent month over month in August, but the rise still falls short of August 2023 levels, keeping a lid on demand and by extension, the market.

OPEC+ is scheduled to meet on December 1 to decide its next policy steps.

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Energy

Dangote’s Allegation of Refinery Boycott By Marketers False, Says  IPMAN President

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Petrol Importation - investorsking.com

The President of the Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria (IPMAN), Abubakar Garima, has expressed shock over business mogul, Aliko Dangote’s allegation that marketers were boycotting his refinery.

Dangote, the owner of a $20bn refinery had claimed that oil marketers in Nigeria have been avoiding his refinery for imported petrol.

He had lamented that such a move would impact negatively on the country’s economy and would discourage local investment.

Responding, however, IPMAN President said the allegations were false.

According to Garima, while speaking on a live telephone programme monitored by Investors King on Wednesday, IPMAN members are not importing petrol.

On the contrary, he disclosed that oil members can’t load petrol from the Dangote Refinery in Lagos despite having paid ₦40billion to the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL).

He said rather than get Dangote petrol through the NNPCL, the private refinery should register independent petrol marketers directly for smooth loading of the product.

The IPMAN boss noted that if Dangote could be able to sell the product to oil marketers directly, they can buy the product.

He expressed frustration in the fact that marketers had to pay before they pick, adding that “Presently, we have ₦40bn under the NNPCL custody but we cannot source the product.”

Garima explained how some marketers that NNPCL sent to load in Dangote refinery stayed with their trucks for four days, and they cannot load.

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