China’s Credit Rating

In the news on radio this morning, I heard that the S&P Global ratings cut China’s sovereign credit rating due to the risk in her rising debt profile. This is the first time since 1999 that China’s rating has been adjusted. The previous rating of AA- was cut to A+. The rating change is an indication that the economic and financial risks of the country has increased following a period of strong credit growth. According to the ratings it still means that China has a strong capacity to meet its financial commitments, but is somewhat more susceptible to an adverse effect of a change in circumstances and economic condition than previously. Statistics show that China’s total non- financial sector debt reached 235 percent of GDP in 2016 and IMF projects that China’s total non-financial sector debt would reach around 290 percent of GDP in 2022. With a debt profile of that size, there is little wonder why S&P is alarmed and had to revisit their rating.
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Bank of Canada Raises Interest Rates

The Bank of Canada (“BOC”) increased interest rates on the back of recently released economic data showing that growth was higher than expected, thereby supporting the bank’s view that growth in the country is becoming more broadly based and self-sustaining. To buttress the Bank of Canada’s view, the bank reported that consumer spending remain robust, underpinned by continued solid employment and income growth and great GDP numbers. This gave the BOC reason to review the MPR and ultimately decide to increase it in a bid to stabilize the economy and possibly eliminate the threat of inflation. This post seeks to analyze the implication of the interest rate hike to the economy.
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CBN Forex Intervention

It is no surprise that the somewhat stability of the forex market in Nigeria is as a result of the interventions by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN). If it were left to the market forces of demand and supply, then trust me, the rates could have reached a high of N700 to a dollar by now. So news reaching me today is that the CBN yet again carried out another intervention with a sum of US$250 Million. The breakdown of the intervention fund is as follows: The wholesale sector was allocated US$100 million while the Small and Medium Enterprise window received a US$80 million boost. The remainder of US$70 were apportioned to address needs such as the Business and Personal Travel needs (BTA / PTA), school fees and medicals and other such needs requiring foreign exchange.
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Overview of Bitcoin

Hello people, saw it today in the news that China Is going head on against bit coin exchange by taking a decision to close down local bit coin exchanges. Today I would be providing more insights on the situation and its effect on Bitcoin. Before we proceed though, let’s have a look at what bit coin is. Bitcoin is a worldwide cyptocurrency and digital payment system where all transactions are strictly digital, and verified through the use of network nodes and recorded in a public distributed ledger called a blockchain. Bitcoin does not have a central authority or bank, and the system is peer to peer where transactions take place directly between users without an intermediary. Bitcoin is known as the first truly digital currency and was developed by a group of programmers under the name Satoshi Nakamoto.
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Federal Government of Nigeria Approves Concession of Airports

On the radio this morning, I heard that the Federal government of Nigeria has approved the concession of the Murtala Muhammed International Airport (Lagos) and the Nnamdi Azikwe International Airport (Abuja). The development was announced by the Vice President, Professor Yomi Osinbanjo at the quarterly parley of the government and private sector stakeholders organized by the Presidential Enabling business Environment Committee (PEBEC) held at the presidential villa in Abuja.
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CBN Enforces Electronic Certificate of Capital Importation (eCCI)

Hello people, I hope your day is going well. Today we would be discussing the Certificate of Capital Importation and CBN’s move from physical hardcopy certificates to electronic certificates. So if you don’t know, a certificate of capital importation (“CCI”) is a certificate issued to foreign investors bringing in foreign exchange to invest in Nigeria. Its aim is to provide foreign investors a statutory evidence of capital inflow or investment into Nigeria for the purpose of facilitating the repatriation of returns (dividends or interest) or capital on divestment back to the base country of the investor. In simple terms, it allows foreign investors access foreign exchange in Nigeria at the official rate (CBN rate).
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DMO Strategy on Borrowing

It is being reported that the federal government of Nigeria seeks to reduce its domestic debt and channel into cheaper sources of fund through external debt for funding capital projects in line with the present administration on speeding up infrastructural development in the country.
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Analysis of Nigeria’s recent GDP report

Hello people, I hope your week is going well. Thank God it’s just one more day till the weekend “whoop whoop”, can’t wait for it to be here. So on Tuesday, the National bureau of labour statistics “NBS” issued their quarterly report (for Q2 2017) on the country’s GDP (Gross domestic product and advised that Nigeria is currently out of the worst recessionary period to have hit the country in a decade. Prior to this, the GDP had contracted for 5 consecutive quarters (beginning from the first quarter of 2016), but for this quarter, it grew by 0.55 per cent.
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Two new FX windows by the CBN

Hi all, I hope you are all doing well. Just a day more to go before the weekend. Whoop Whoop. So excited again because my sister’s introduction would be happening during the weekend. Awwn, these little kids of nowadays grow up so fast. Yeah, that aside, let’s move on to the business of today, we would be taking a look at the two special purpose FX windows created by the CBN in recent time.
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China’s Bond Issue

• China is reportedly close to issuing its first dollar bond sale in 13 years. The makeup of the bond will be a US$2 billion dollar denominated sovereign bond which will consist of US$1 billion of five year bonds and US$1 billion of 10 year bonds. This issue comes at a period were sovereign bond yields are at a multi-year low.

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