Ecobank Nigeria is offering special loan packages for parents and guardians to enable them pay school fees for their children and wards ahead of resumption for the 2023/2024 school year.  In another master stroke, the bank is making special infrastructure loans available to educational institutions. This, according to the bank, will equip them adequately for the new session. The bank also said it has optimised its digital platforms to make them convenient for school fees and other education-related payments. Announcing the various ‘back to school’ initiatives of the bank in Lagos, Head, Consumer Banking, Korede Demola-Adeniyi, said it is in line with the bank’s overall strategy to support the development of the nation’s education sector, adding that Ecobank’s digital offerings are targeted at reducing the financial burden on parents, students and schools, and also facilitating the ease of payment of fees without hassles. 

She listed the digital offerings to include Ecobank Mobile App, EcobankPay and Ecobank Online for contactless fees payment; personal loans and salary advance packages at competitive interest rates, international transfers for offshore school fees payment and affordable remittance offerings. She also noted that families abroad who wish to send money home to help with fees can do so at zero charges on the Rapidtransfer app. The bank has also provided the Banking-for-School pack for educational institutions to access working capital and loans. The features of this pack include easy fee collections, zero charges on collection accounts with EcobankPay, secure online banking with Omni Lite and cards for easy payments. Speaking specifically on the loans available for the educational institutions, she noted that they could be accessed without bottlenecks as the bank has taken into cognisance the country’s current economic realities.

According to her, “As a bank that is passionate about education, we are prioritising the pedagogical needs of our customers at this period when schools resume. Children deserve to go to school and we are making it easy for parents to provide them this basic right.” Mrs. Demola-Adeniyi urged schools to appoint the bank as their preferred financial institution for payments and collections, noting that Ecobank has demonstrated pedigree and expertise in fees collection, locally and internationally. She encouraged schools and individuals that are yet to open Ecobank accounts to do so in order to access the offers available.

The Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) has said that six out of eight Power Distribution Companies (DisCos) have complied or substantially complied with the approved minimum remittance threshold in the Order for July to September 2019. NERC, the regulator of the industry, confirmed the development in a notice sent to the affected companies. The notice dated December 12 2019 was signed by Mr Dafe Akpeneye, Commissioner, Legal Licensing and Compliance, NERC. It said only Enugu Electricity Distribution Company Plc and Port Harcourt Electricity Distribution Company Plc failed to comply with the remittance directive in the period under review.

It will be recalled that NERC had on November 5 served notice to eight DisCos of its intention to cancel their licences for failure to meet their obligated remittance to the market. “The Commission has reasonable cause to believe that the DisCos listed below have breached the provisions of the Electric Power Sector Reform Act, terms and conditions of their respective distribution licences and the 2016 – 2018 Minor Review of the Multi Year Tariff Order (MYTO) and Minor Remittance Order for the year 2019. The affected DisCos include the Abuja Electricity Distribution Company Plc, Benin Electricity Distribution Company Plc, Enugu Electricity Distribution Company Plc and Ikeja Electric Plc.

“Others are Kaduna Electricity Distribution Company Plc, Kano Electricity Distribution Company Plc, Port Harcourt Electricity Distribution Company Plc and Yola Electricity Distribution Company,” it said. However, NERC said the affected DisCos were given till Dec. 9 to show cause in writing as to why their licences should not be withdrawn. According to NERC, all eight DisCos met the deadline for the submission of written responses showing cause against the cancellation notice and these responses have been filed at the commission.

NERC said: “The remittance to Nigerian Bulk Electricity Trading (NBET) Plc by the DisCos to date indicates that six out of the eight DisCos (AEDC, BEDC, IE, KEDCO, YEDC and KAEDCO) met the expected minimum remittance thresholds for the three months of July to September 2019.

“Two out of the eight DisCos (EEDC and PHEDC) did not meet the expected minimum remittance thresholds for any of the three months of July to September 2019. The commission reiterates that the failure of DisCos to comply with expected minimum remittance threshold in the order exposes Nigerian Electricity Supply Industry (NESI) to systemic risk.

“It threatens the sustainability of other parts of the value chain and the ability to improve services to customers.” The commission said consequently, a public hearing would be held by NERC on Dec. 19 on the issues affecting the two non-compliant DisCos in line with Section 41 of Electric Power Sector Reform Act and Section 17 of the Business Rules. NERC said in recognition of the “good faith” demonstrated by the six other DisCos, the commission and their management would meet on Dec. 20 to address issues concerning them instead of a public hearing.

Market Statistics Thursday, 13th April, 2017

Market Cap (N’bn) 8,826.8
Market Cap (US$’bn) 28.8
NSE All-Share Index 25,510.01
Daily Performance % 0.1
Week Performance % (1.0)
YTD Performance % (5.1)
Daily Volume (Million) 349.3
Daily Value (N’bn) 2.3
Daily Value (US$’m) 7.4

The equities market closed positive at the end of trade today as the All Share Index (ASI) added 5bps to close at 25,510.01 points. Consequently, market capitalisation advanced N4.6bn to settle at N8.8tn while YTD loss remained at 5.1%. STANBIC (+2.2%), WAPCO (+1.9%) and ZENITH (+1.3%) were the major drivers today. Also, market activity improved as volume and value traded rose 41.0% and 82.8% to settle at 349.3m units and N2.3bn respectively.

Mixed Performance across Sectors
Performance across sectors was mixed as 2 sector indices advanced while 3 declined. The gainers’ chart was topped by the Industrial Goods index (+0.9%) following gains recorded in WAPCO (+1.9%). Similarly, the Oil & Gas index improved 0.1% on the back of price appreciation in OANDO (+2.0%). On the flipside, the Consumer Goods, Insurance and Banking indices slid 0.1% apiece, dragged by losses in NIGERIAN BREWERIES (-0.4%), AIICO (-3.6%) and GUARANTY (-0.7%).

Investor Sentiment Improves
Investor sentiment improved today as market breadth settled at 1.6x (from 1.2x yesterday) after 18 stocks advanced against 11 declining stocks. The best performing stocks were CILEASING (+8.5%), NASCON (+5.3%) and TRANCORP (+3.9%) while UNIONDICON (-5.0%), AIICO (-3.6%) and FORTE (-1.5%) declined the most. Next week, we expect market performance to continue to fluctuate in margins as investors await the release of Q1:2017 earnings reports.

NASD OTC Exchange Market Activities
In the NASD OTC exchange, total volume and value of transactions traded stood at 555,098 units and N5.5m respectively. WAMCO (+1.4%), AFRILAND (+5.7%) and CSCS (+9.9) closed in the green while AIRLIQ (-5.0%) was the sole decliner.

Afrinvest