GUINEA – Central Bank of Guinea has adopted Refinitiv Trading solutions to effectively manage currency flows, primary market liquidity provision, and facilitate regional and international trade and investment.

With the scarcity of liquidity across Sub Saharan African markets, it is crucial for African countries to protect their FX reserves and tab on new liquidity pools. Leveraging technology and deploying efficient FX and trading infrastructure systems enhances transparency, accuracy and credibility to the marketplace and facilitates economic growth. The Refinitiv FX Trading platform will offer the local market in Guinea access to deeper offshore liquidity, efficient execution, and automated trade reporting tools.

Refinitiv Auctions will enhance the efficiency of Guinea’s forex auction capabilities and provides a real-time view of bid submissions which will simplify the allocation process. Last year, Refinitiv Auctions reached a key milestone having helped facilitate over $1trillion for its central bank and large corporate customers in Africa, Middle East, Asia and Europe.

Dr. Louncény NABE, Governor of the Central Bank of Guinea, said: “We are delighted to announce the deployment of Refinitiv Auctions in Guinea. The step comes in line with the Central Bank’s vision to run a transparent and compliant auctions infrastructure. The deployment will help us improve the efficiency of our FX auction process and enhance the financial sector’s confidence in Guinea.”

Nadim Najjar, Managing Director, Middle East and Africa, Refinitiv, said: “We are proud to be part of The Central Bank of Guinea’s digital transformation vision. Following the COVID-19 outbreak, Central Banks in Africa are facing increasing risks in managing their currency flows and protecting FX reserves. To do this effectively, central banks need to be able to run a transparent and compliant process across multiple asset classes including FX and money markets.”

Refinitiv Auctions has seen rapid growth and adoption in 2019, with a 27% year on year increase in customers, and is now used by central banks in Europe, the Middle East, Africa and Asia. Refinitiv is able to address central banks’ needs around data residency and infrastructure costs by offering its solution on either a hosted or deployed basis.

Ardova Plc, one of the leading indigenous oil marketing firms, just signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Shell Trading International Limited to act as the main distributor for Shell Lubricants branded products for the automotive and industrial sectors in Nigeria.

In a statement released via its official Twitter handle @ardovalplc, Olumide Adeosun, the Chief Executive Officer, Ardova Plc, was quoted as saying “We are delighted that our company will act as the main distributor for Shell Lubricants branded products for the automotive and industrial sectors in Nigeria.”

Formerly known as Forte Oil Plc, Ardova new owner, AbdulWasiu Sowami, noted that the company’s goal was to provide customers with best in class products and services, build partnerships that optimize synergies and create value for all parties involved. “This deal ticks all those boxes and we are excited to add the Shell range of lubricants to the portfolio of products available to our customers.”

Chairman of Shell companies in Nigeria, Osagie Okunbor, who also commented on the deal, said: “This is a reinforcement of our commitment to continue to optimize our footprints in Nigeria while working with local companies for mutual benefits and to create opportunities for the people. Shell lubricants products will offer improved performance for automobiles across the country through Ardova’s chain of retail stations and resellers”.

Ardova Plc turned profitable immediately the company was acquired from billionaire Femi Otedola, who owned and managed it when it was Forte Oil Plc. The company declared N875.380 million profit after tax in the third quarter of 2020, almost 550 percent increase from the -N190.843 million posted in the same quarter of 2019.

Gross profit rose to N3.599 billion in the same quarter, up from N2.552 billion in the corresponding quarter of 2019.

Ali Ndume, the Senator representing Borno South senatorial district, said President Muhammadu Buhari’s Social Intervention Programmes (SIP’s) has made little impact on Nigerian youth despite the billions invested in it since the programme was introduced over four years ago.

Speaking on Channels Television programme, Politics Sunday.

Ndume said poor implementation by the administration led to poor output and slow progress of the programmes.

The programmes under the SIP are Npower, GEEP, Conditional Cash Transfer (CCT) and The National Home Grown School Feeding Programme (NHGSFP).

According to Ndume “I can tell you that from the beginning, we came in with three main agenda. One is to secure the country, two is to fight corruption, and three is to provide infrastructure. You cannot say that the president has not performed in these three areas. But the impact and then the implementation is the problem.

“Under normal circumstances, you don’t expect the president to do that personally himself. He is supposed to get the able hands. That is where the problem started. That is where we have the problem.

“I will give you an example, in the case of the youth. When we were campaigning, we saw many youths and the president asked, what are we going to do with this? That was when the idea of N-Power came,” Mr Ndume said.