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Union Bank Raises N50b Through Rights Issue

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Union Bank of Nigeria Plc has raised N49.7 billion through a rights issue from existing shareholders, showing a high level of investors’ confidence.

The bank had made a rights issue of 12.1 billion ordinary shares of 50 kobo N4.10 per share between September and October, 2017.

According to the management of Union Bank, the proceeds of the rights issue will enhance the bank’s capital base and better position it to deliver stronger and sustained shareholder returns.

The bank said yesterday that at the close of the issue on October 30, it recorded a subscription level of 120 per cent.

The bank said the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, and Securities and Exchange Commission, SEC, concluded the share allotment and capital clearance review in December 2017.

Commenting on the outcome of the issue, Emeka Emuwa, chief executive officer, Union Bank of Nigeria, said: “The support of our shareholders has been critical to the rebuilding and transformation of Union Bank over the past 5 years. With 20 per cent oversubscription of the Bank’s Rights Issue, they have once again demonstrated a high level of confidence and support for the bank’s short to medium term strategic priorities.

Having successfully raised the required capital, we will accelerate the pace of doing business in 2018 as we begin to deploy this fresh capital across identified business areas which will increase our capacity to serve customers better while also delivering returns to our investors in the short to medium term.”

According to him, the new capital will also ensure the bank maintains a strong buffer above regulatory capital adequacy requirements as it drives towards its vision to be Nigeria’s most trusted and reliable banking partner.

Union Bank ended the nine months ended September 30, 2017 with profit before tax of N13 billion. Emuwa had said they remain encouraged by the results of our customer acquisition strategy, as customers continue to respond to our targeted market offerings and increased brand awareness.

This he said followed the debut of a new advertising campaign to support the launch of Union Bank’s new digital platform, including our revamped mobile banking app and *826#, our SMS banking platform.

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Finance

Flutterwave Activates American Express Payments for its Merchants in Nigeria

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Olugbenga GB Agboola, CEO Flutterwave
Olugbenga GB Agboola, CEO Flutterwave

Flutterwave, Africa’s leading payments technology company, has announced today that its online merchants in Nigeria can now accept American Express payments.

American Express Card Members – with consumer, business, or corporate cards – will be able to make payments directly to e-commerce businesses using Flutterwave in Nigeria.

This service will also be available to Flutterwave merchants in other countries including Tanzania, Rwanda, Ghana and Uganda in the near future.

This collaboration facilitates online transactions and offers a range of benefits for both merchants and online shoppers:

  • Flutterwave merchants can attract business from a new customer base of American Express Card Members in Africa and around the world. This includes consumers with personal cards and spenders with business or corporate products. Terms and conditions apply.
  • For shoppers, there is more choice when it comes to being able to select their preferred method of payment when transacting with Flutterwave merchants. This collaboration strengthens the American Express global network and increases the number of locations across Africa that can be used by American Express Card Members to purchase a range of different goods and services.

Speaking on the development, Olugbenga ‘GB’ Agboola, Founder and CEO, Flutterwave, said:“At Flutterwave, we’re always looking for ways to connect the world to Africa through payments. This is one of our initiatives to ensure that more people across the world can pay using Flutterwave in Africa. We understand the value of providing shoppers with payment methods that work for them, as well as helping businesses to expand their customer bases. This collaboration also provides more options of where to shop and what to buy to American Express card holders across the globe. By offering American Express as a method of payment, Flutterwave will make the payment process faster and simpler for American Express card holders, and improve the experience for e-commerce businesses using Flutterwave, helping them to start locally and sell globally.”

On his part, Briana Wilsey, Vice President and General Manager of Global Network Services EMEA at American Express, said: “American Express continues to expand in Africa to enable greater payment choice for businesses and consumers. Through the agreement with Flutterwave, a trusted payment provider, we are giving e-commerce merchants in Nigeria the opportunity to reach American Express Card Members around the world. The collaboration is a win-win because it also increases the number of places where our Card Members can use their Cards in Nigeria.”

Flutterwave and American Express share similar visions; to enable businesses across the world to expand their operations in Africa and other emerging markets through a platform that enables local and cross-border transactions via one Application Programming Interface (API).

Flutterwave has processed over 630M transactions in excess of USD $31B, serves global and African customers like Uber, Air Peace, Bamboo, PiggyVest, and across various industries. On the other hand, American Express is a globally integrated payments company, providing customers with access to products, insights and experiences that enrich lives and build business success.

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Finance

NNPC Releases 2023 Audited Financial Statement

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NNPC Report
L-R: Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Petroleum Resources, Ambassador Nicholas Agbo Ella; Chairman, NNPC Ltd Board, Chief Pius Akinyelure and the CFO NNPC Ltd, Mr. Umar Ajiya during the Release of NNPC Ltd’s 2023 Audited Financial Statement (AFS) at the NNPC Towers in Abuja, on Monday.

…Posts N3.3trn Net Profit, Declares N2.1trn Dividend

…Targets 2mbpd Crude Oil Production by December 2024

The NNPC Limited has released its 2023 Audited Financial Statement (AFS), declaring a net profit of N3.297 trillion at the close of the financial year which ended in December 2023, an increase of over N700billion (28%) when compared to the 2022 profit of N2.548trillion.

In a world press conference held at the NNPC Towers in Abuja on Monday, the Chief Financial Officer of the Company, Mr. Umar Ajiya said the release of the AFS is a testament to the Company’s commitment to transparency and accountability.

“Our fiscal performance reflects both strategic foresight and operational resilience. Despite inherent challenges of our operational and economic environment, we have improved the productivity and the financial performance of this great company,” Ajiya stated.

Ajiya added that posting such impressive returns demonstrates NNPC Ltd’s commitment to sustaining profitability and supporting the attainment of national energy security as stipulated by the Petroleum Industry Act (PIA) 2021, and by extension, as expected by the Company’s shareholders.

Explaining that the NNPC Ltd will announce Initial Public offer (IPO) once the shareholders and Board make a decision, Ajiya also debunked claims on subsidy payment, saying the Company was only taking care of the shortfall on PMS importation between it and the Federation.

Speaking earlier at the press conference, the Chairman of the NNPC Ltd Board, Chief Pius Akinyelure said that the excellent performance came as the fruit of the PIA 2021, the commitment of the Board, Management and staff of the company.

Akinyelure added that the shareholders of the company have since approved a final dividend of N2.1trn in line with PIA 2021 provisions.

In her remarks at the briefing, the Executive Vice President, Upstream, Mrs. Oritsemeyiwa Eyesan said with improvements witnessed as a result of the renewed vigour in the war against crude oil theft and pipeline vandalism, NNPC Ltd is targeting 2million barrels per day crude oil production by the the end of the year.

On the current fuel queues in parts of Lagos and the FCT, the Executive Vice President, Downstream, Mr. Dapo Segun appealed for understanding from Nigerians, saying that the the Company is working with relevant stakeholders to address the distribution, evacuation and logistics challenges.

It would be recalled that in 2021, NNPC declared profit in its operations for the first time.  From a loss position of N803 billion in 2018, it reduced the loss further down to N1.7 billion in 2019.

However, in 2020, it posted its ‘first ever’ profit of N287 billion, then in 2021, it recorded a N674.1 billion profit and in 2022, the profit grew to N2.548, an unprecedented achievement in its financial performance. The N3.297 trillion profit declared for 2023 is the highest since the Company’s inception, 46 years ago.

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AVEVA Unveils New InTouch Unlimited HMI/SCADA Capabilities, Pricing Structure

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Doug Warren, AVEVA’s Senior Vice President, Monitoring & Control Business (1)
Doug Warren, AVEVA’s Senior Vice President, Monitoring & Control Business

Truly unlimited tag counts, clients, and scalability—combined with access to advanced

AI/ML analytics and CONNECT services—streamline developer workflows, while delivering unprecedented value.

AVEVA, a global leader in industrial software driving digital transformation and sustainability, today announced updated capabilities and commercial models for their award-winning InTouch Unlimited HMI/SCADA software.

New features, optimized commercial models, and pricing make it easier for end users, original equipment manufacturers (OEMs), and systems integrators (SIs) to develop and scale HMI/SCADA applications from edge-to-cloud, with the ability to incorporate analytics and CONNECT, AVEVA’s industrial intelligence platform.

AVEVA InTouch Unlimited empowers system integrators with the most comprehensive suite of HMI/SCADA technology available in the market today. It is an all-inclusive licensing package available in perpetual and subscription models with unlimited tags, clients, and scalability. The InTouch Unlimited package features comprehensive process historian and reporting functionality, equipping users with the ability to collect and unlock the value of data sourced at the edge, and from multiple plants and systems spanning the enterprise. The modernized development tools are now available free of charge and include prebuilt templates to accelerate design productivity, as well as simplified tag and application development workflow leveraging industry standard protocols such as OPC-UA and MQTT.

SIs and users can easily develop, deploy, and scale HMI/SCADA applications using InTouch Unlimited. As a component of the broader AVEVA Operations Control software portfolio, InTouch Unlimited can utilize hybrid-cloud architecture to easily integrate AI features such as predictive quality, throughput, and energy efficiency into traditional HMI/SCADA applications. By pairing AVEVA Operations Control with CONNECT, developers can consolidate operations data from various production lines, plants, and value chains. This provides a centralized view of operations and allows the system to scale with business growth without the need for application redevelopment.

InTouch continues to be an innovation leader in HMI/SCADA since the technology’s inception over three decades ago. AVEVA is committed to delivering products that make it easy to evaluate our software portfolio, develop tailored solutions, and scale to meet growing business needs. Doug Warren, AVEVA’s Senior Vice President, Monitoring & Control Business, emphasizes this user-focused approach. “AVEVA InTouch Unlimited provides unprecedented value for our system integration partners,” says Warren. “This new offer, coupled with our focus on technical enablement through the Heroes HQ forum and bite sized video-based training content, makes choosing AVEVA HMI/SCADA products easier than ever.”

For more information about AVEVA InTouch, visit AVEVA™ InTouch HMI | AVEVA. A trial of AVEVA InTouch Unlimited is available  at AVEVA™ InTouch HMI Trial.

What you should know about AVEVA

AVEVA is a global leader in industrial software, sparking ingenuity to drive responsible use of the world’s resources. The company’s secure industrial cloud platform and applications enable businesses to harness the power of their information and improve collaboration with customers, suppliers, and partners.

Over 20,000 enterprises in over 100 countries rely on AVEVA to help them deliver life’s essentials: safe and reliable energy, food, medicines, infrastructure and more. By connecting people with trusted information and AI-enriched insights, AVEVA enables teams to engineer efficiently and optimize operations, driving growth and sustainability.

Named as one of the world’s most innovative companies, AVEVA supports customers with open solutions and the expertise of more than 6,500 employees, 5,000 partners and 5,700 certified developers. The company, which has operations around the globe, is headquartered in Cambridge, UK. Learn more at www.aveva.com.

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