NBCC Holds Breakfast Meeting
The Nigerian-British Chamber of Commerce (NBCC) recently hosted the business community to its first Breakfast Meeting of the year themed “2020 Economic Outlook,” held in Lagos.
Speakers at the event were the Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer, Financial Derivatives Company Limited, Bismarck Rewane, and the British Deputy High Commissioner, Harriet Thompson.
Speaking during his presentation, the keynote speaker, Rewane, shared his projections on likely economic, social and geopolitical trends for 2020 across the diverse sectors of the economy.
One of his projections was that the country would experience tighter monetary policies due to inflation increasing to an average of 11.8 per cent.
Thompson, in her address stated that creating partnership that attract quality investment to drive growth and create jobs were top priorities of the United Kingdom.
“We want to help Nigeria get the investment it needs and ensure that our existing investors are joined by new ones,” she said.
She also expressed excitement that Nigeria played a leading role at the recently held UK-Africa Investment Summit in the UK.
The event was sponsored by British Airways, Union Bank of Nigeria Plc and Red Star Express Plc. It was moderated by David Brown, Principal Analyst at Dbrownconsulting.
Speaking on the event, Director of Programmes and Membership at the Nigerian-British Chamber of Commerce, Ayomide Olajide stated that “the Breakfast Meeting aimed at providing an opportunity for key business leaders to engage, foster business relationships and proffer solutions to projected outcomes in the unfolding year.”
The next NBCC breakfast meeting holds in February 2020, with the theme “Private-Public Partnerships - How to make it work”.
For over 40 years, the Chamber has committed itself to fostering goodwill and increasing trade and investment between Nigeria and Britain. The Chamber currently has about 300 members from diverse sectors of the economy.
In line with the directive of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) that all Microfinance banks operating in the country should shore up their capital to N3.5 billion by April this year, Baobab Microfinance Bank has announced that it has met and surpassed the threshold.
The Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of the bank, Dr. Olanrewaju Kazeem, who disclosed this in a chat with newsmen in Lagos, said the capital came via retained earnings as against its initial plans to raise the money via rights issue.
Specifically, he said, “The central bank expects that by April this year, our shareholders’ funds should be hitting N3.5 billion, and a minimum of N5 Billion by 2021. I am happy to say that at this point, our shareholders fund is over N3. 9 billion, coming from retained earnings.