BUSINESS NEWS & TIPS

The National Bureau of Statistics, NBS, on Wednesday said the total value of capital imported into Nigeria in the first quarter of 2017 was estimated to be $908.27 million, the lowest in ten years. According to a new report tagged Capital Importation Report, released by the bureau on Wednesday, when compared to the $1.55 billion that the economy attracted in the fourth quarter of 2016, the figure represents a decline of $640.61 million, representing 41.36 per cent. The decline in investment inflow, the report said, was due to the fall in “other investment” and portfolio investments category made up of equity, which dropped from $176.44 million in the fourth quarter of 2016 to $101.99 million in the first quarter of 2017. Similarly, loans declined from $917 .01 million to $369.28 million while bonds, which recorded $25.4 million at the end of the last quarter of 2016, recorded nothing in the first quarter of the current fiscal year. “Capital importation was particularly low

Nigeria issued its first Forcados oil loading plan since 2016, putting the nation’s June oil exports on track to hit thier highest level in at least 15 months. The plan, if realised, would return loadings by Nigeria, normally West Africa’s biggest oil exporter, to levels not seen since militant attacks in the oil-rich Niger Delta first shut down Forcados exports in early 2016. It is also likely to put more downward pressure on oil prices, which are already trading more than 16 percent below the highs reached in January on the back of a persistent global excess. Last week the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries along with several other oil producing nations agreed to extend output cuts of 1.8 million bpd, but it gave Nigeria, along with Libya, another exemption. The  Forcados loading schedule includes seven cargoes, for a total of 197,000 barrels per day (bpd) . That would bring total June exports to 1.75 million bpd aboard 58 cargoes. According to the Reuters