Quick Takes

FICAN Holds Annual Conference

The 2018 annual conference of the Finance Correspondents Association of Nigeria (FICAN) will hold in Lagos on 15th and 16th of September, 2018 The conference, with the theme: “Banks, Fintech and Nigeria’s Financial Inclusion Journey,” has the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Governor as the keynote speaker. There will also be representatives from the Nigeria Deposit Insurance Corporation (NDIC). The guest speaker will be Dr. Yinka David-West, who is a Digital Financial Inclusion Specialist at the Lagos Business School. The event will also feature a panellist session with some bank chief executives, Financial Technology (FinTech) operators, as well as regulators discussing the sub-theme: “Financial Inclusion: the Journey So Far.” In a statement, FICAN said fintech companies and financial innovation are changing the competitive landscape of financial intermediation. “Every commercial bank today knows what services to upgrade; because customers are already carrying out such transactions with fintech start-ups. “In the same manner, financial inclusion has continued to assume increasing recognition across the globe among policy makers, researchers and development-oriented agencies,” it stated. Continuing, it said the conference would be a step forward to finding the nexus, and its implications for meeting the financial inclusion target.

Reinsurance Journalists’ Awards Open

Pan-African reinsurance firm, Continental Reinsurance Plc has announced the opening of its fourth edition of the Pan African Re/ Insurance Journalism Awards. Continental Re, said the 2019 awards are open to all business journalists from Anglophone and Francophone countries in Africa and that submissions would be received from September 4th and November 30th 2018. The company, therefore urged Interested participants to submit their entries as per instructions on the awards web page-before the submission deadline. Continentale Re Group Managing Director, Dr Femi Oyetunji, said this year’s awards would give opportunity to both traditional and online journalists to participate and compete with their print counterparts who have been recording the highest number of entries over the past three editions. He listed the award categories in the 2019 edition as Pan- African Re/Insurance Journalist of the Year,Best Re/Insurance Print Article,Best Re/Insurance Broadcast (TV/Radio) Article and Best Re/Insurance Online Article. “The new category (online) will accommodate articles and blogs written exclusively for internet audiences. These categories were recommended by the 2018 judging panel,” he added. The Continental Re boss said an independent panel of judges would assess the entries and select winners of the Pan African Re/Insurance Journalism Awards 2019 who will be announced during the Continental Re’s annual CEO Summit to be held in April 2019 in Mauritius

Sierra Leone Suspends Oil Exploration

Sierra Leone has suspended its fourth licencing round for hydrocarbon exploration, the head of its Petroleum Directorate told Reuters on Monday, citing poor timing of the round’s initial launch. The round to licence five deep-water offshore blocks was officially launched at the end of January, but it was extended in June until September 27. Ahead of this deadline, the initiative has been suspended for up to another six months of consultation, the directorate said. “It’s about timing, and the initial announcement was not the timeliest,” the directorate’s executive director, Timothy Kabba, told Reuters, explaining the decision.