ANALYSIS
EDITORIAL
Corporate earnings set to surpass 2021 levels
Nigeria’s consumer stocks are most attractive among, emerging markets, BRICS Pg 7
MARKET MOVING NEWS, DATA & ANALYSIS
BOTTOM LINE
Monday 25th - 31st July 2022
Pg 11
Vol. 02, No. 080
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Is the insurance industry ready for AfCFTA? The regulatory viewpoint
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Nigeria economy comes full circle to 1999
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COMPANIES & MARKETS
United Capital records consistent profit growth since 2017
As high debt, low growth threatens previous gains PATRICK ATUANYA
Twenty-three unbroken years into Nigeria’s democratic experiment, it’s looking like déjà vu all over again for Africa’s most populous nation as current economic realities begin to resemble the difficult conditions pre -1999. When ex-President Olusegun Obasanjo was elected on February 27th 1999, he had the hapless task of overseeing an economy and political system largely destroyed by 16 straight years of brutal military rule. A largely stagnant economy in that time period meant that income per person fell from $788 in 1980 to $679 in 1999 even as Nigeria’s population surged to nearly 100 million people. Today, income per head has also been sliding from $2,693 in the year 2015 to $2,099 last year (2021) even as the Nigerian population crosses the 200 million mark. Nigeria’s currency, the naira, went from near parity (N1: $1)
Pg. 8
FTN Cocoa needs capital injections to bolster working capital as losses pile Pg. 9
These companies have the strongest ROEs in Nigeria Pg. 12
or slightly stronger than the dollar in 1980 to losing over 99% of its value such that N1 was now worth only one American cent in 1999. These days the naira is also in a slow motion crash moving BONDS/FORWARD
NSE INDICES (WEEKLY) All share 51,979.92
0.45%
NGX 30 1,885.02
0.56%
INSURANCE HUB
Source : IMF, World Bank, MoneyCentral Research
FGN
FX ($/N)
23 -JUL - 30
30- AUG -23
11.78%
456.72
from $1: N198 in 2015 to today’s dollar value of N445 in the official investor & exporters (I&E) FX market. In the thinly traded parallel market the Naira exchanges hands for as low as N630 per dollar leading to a record COMMODITIES
BRENT (ICE) 103.20 USD/bbl
2.04
high divergence between official and parallel Market. As you can guess by now it was the exact same scenario in 1999 and earlier years under Abacha, which also led to corContinues on page 15
Bitcoin (BTC)
GOLD Spot 1,727.64 USD/t.oz
19.47
I&E FX Window
$22,337
$ - NGN
N14.59 M
Turnover
430.00 $373.6mn* *As @April 8, 2022
CONSUMER GOODS
Brewers lead as innovative products underpin earnings BALA AUGIE
It is not surprising that brewers are the best performer in the consumer goods space, overcoming the coronavirus pandemic and a tough and unpredictable macroeconomic
environment . The impressive performance of Nigerian Breweries, Guinness Nigeria, International Brewers, and Champions stems from the strategies put in place by adroit managers who understand Nigeria’s business climate.
According to a latest report by Afrinvest Securities, Nigerian Breweries and Guinness responded to the coronavirus induced crisis by strengthening alliance with leading online shopping platforms such as Jumia and Konga to meet con-
Top Nigerian insurers saw robust premium growth in 2021
sumers’ demand at the comfort of their homes. Analysts at the investment house added that saw Guinness leveraged its major distributors across Lagos state to facilitate Continues on page 10
Pg. 10 MARKET EAR
Digital technology services revenue boosts Africa Prudential as profit jumps 13% Pg. 15
MARKETS
BUA cement declares N88.04 billion dividend payout for shareholders …targets 17 Million Metric tonnes per annum by 2023 SEUN PETERS
Shareholders of one of Africa’s largest manufacturing companies, BUA Cement Plc, have approved dividends of
N88.047billion for its financial year ended December 31, 2021 at N2:60k per ordinary share of 50k each. This approval was given during the company’s 6th Annual
General Meeting held in Abuja, and comes on the back of a strong financial performance in the year under review that recorded revenue growth of 22.9% from N209.4 billion in 2020 to
N257.3 billion in 2021. Profits after Tax also rose by 24.5% to N90.1 billion in the year under review. Speaking at the Annual General Meeting, Abdul Samad Rabiu, Chairman of the Board Continues on page 11
Abdul Samad Rabiu, Chairman of the Board of Directors of BUA Cement Plc