Emele Onu

Nigerian Exchange Group is expanding equities trading hours after index provider FTSE Russell said it would allow the country’s equities to return to its frontier-markets benchmark later this year.

Access Holdings Plc, a Nigerian lender with operations in at least 24 countries, plans to reduce its equity stakes in some of its foreign units to comply with new central bank rules limiting external investments by local banks.

Nigerian assets are rallying across stocks, bonds and the currency as investor confidence builds in President Bola Tinubu’s economic agenda.

Malawi is an extreme example of the impact on food security from the upheaval in the fertilizer market from the Iran war.

S&P Global Ratings lifted Nigeria’s credit rating for the first time since 2012, citing higher oil prices and the country’s improved capacity to refine and export crude.

The Strait of Hormuz is thousands of kilometres from Malawi, but its effective closure is already making fertiliser too expensive to reach the farmers who need it most.

ARM-Harith Infrastructure Investments Ltd., a private equity fund manager, said it aims to raise $200 million to invest in energy and climate infrastructure projects across sub-Saharan Africa.

Jim Ovia, who built Nigeria’s biggest lender by market value, is turning his attention to the Lagos skyline.

United Capital Plc plans to expand into East Africa in the third quarter, joining a flurry of financial-services firms seeking to capitalize on the continent’s fastest-growing region.

Essentially, the company is moribund. Yet, in the stock market, its value has done nothing but rise this year.