Podcasts about nigerian stock exchange

This episode is dedicated to the memory of the late Abimbola Ogubanjo, former head of the Nigerian Stock Exchange and an esteemed figure in Nigerian corporate law, who died in a helicopter crash in California on February 9. The crash also claimed the lives of the CEO of Access Holdings, Herbert Wigwe, his wife, and son. Their legacy continues to resonate around the world. Our conversation with Abi, a pivotal force in Nigeria's legal landscape, sheds light on the transformation of the Nigerian Stock Exchange and the evolving specialization within the legal profession. Abi's unique journey from banking to becoming a cornerstone in Nigeria's oldest indigenous law firm is an odyssey that mirrors the country's own legal metamorphosis.The narrative then shifts to the frontlines of Nigeria's capital market, where the digital revolution is making waves. We peel back the layers of MTN's digital IPO success and scrutinize the strategies that could magnetize foreign investment to Nigeria. Join us in the conversation about infrastructure, foreign exchange stabilization, and the pivotal question of privatization.As we cast our gaze towards Nigeria's horizon, we consider the unmined potential of Nigeria's youthful populace and the fintech sector's explosive growth. We explore the profound link between taxation, quality governance, and the social contract that underpins Nigeria's society's fabric.  Abi's conversation not only covers the intersections of political stability and economic sustainability, but he also shares a deeply personal crusade against cervical cancer, reminding us that behind every statistic, there's a human story waiting to be told.

On today's episode, Ian discusses reports the Prime Minister is planning to scrap part of the HS2 high-speed line in the north of England. He also speaks to a reporter in Michigan, where vehicle workers have been on strike over pay and conditions. And the Nigerian Stock Exchange is carrying out a number of roadshow events in the United States and the UK to encourage investment.

As companies in Africa are becoming international players in both operations and sourcing of capital, the need to meet listing requirements of foreign exchanges and appeal to international investors has elevated the importance of corporate governance in Africa. Generally, favourable economic growth expectations and lack of legacy issues mean that Africa has some advantage in having new governance frameworks fit for the 21st century.In this podcast, Dr Sabine Dembkowski, Founder and Managing Partner of Better Boards talks with Tinuade Awe, Chief Executive Officer of NGX Regulation Limited - an independent regulatory subsidiary of the Nigerian Exchange Group Plc. The Group was formerly known as The Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE)."Entities don't go into business because they want to be regulated"Tinuade starts by outlining the difficulties of multiple layers of regulation, sometimes with different regulators, each wanting to impose certain obligations, each acting within its mandate by the legislative enactment. She believes that while regulators are already collaborating, there should be more of this.   She describes how sociocultural issues are important because the underpinnings of good governance are transparency and disclosure, but the African approach to disclosure differs. African countries have extremely multi-ethnic cultures, leading to a sense of 'keeping what's yours to yourself.' She believes this leads to people simply 'not wanting to see what is happening,' not because of any wrongdoing, fraud, or cover-up, but because culturally, many people don't believe that type of disclosure is necessary. "We tend to look at what works in other places and then domesticate for our market"Tinuade believes that Africa is more similar than different to other countries in regulation. However, when thinking globally and acting locally, there are exceptions, and she gives the example of the demutualisation of the Nigerian Stock Exchange. "Regulator, don't you really think that you should be looking at this group of us and trying to come up with something?"Tinuade reports that the very youthful population in Africa are digital natives and thus require access to digital sources of information. They want well-run companies because they can see how governance is helping to improve other economies and providing opportunities. She feels the combination of youth and technology is undoubtedly vital for the furtherance of corporate governance. "The move from rule-based to principles-based helps moderate the box-ticking"Tinuade acknowledges that, unfortunately, sometimes corporate governance becomes a box-ticking exercise, and there is not as much time spent on whether the board or the governance processes are effective. But if you have a completely Greenfield country, where there is no corporate governance, she feels people need help to get accustomed to what governance means. At the start, you may want to give a tick-box list. But soon the move should be made to be more principles-based governance. Tinuade advocates the latter because it gives scalability and flexibility, which help to moderate the frustrations companies might feel. The three top takeaways from this podcast:1.      Corporate governance is global. There is no African or Western corporate governance. Certain immutable principles apply everywhere. 2.     Many companies are not taking issues around ESG as seriously as they should, and there are many developments in the world right now that will require mandatory obligations on companies.  3.     The regulator is your friend. People should engage more with regulators and develop relationships. It is a two-way street. 

The Lagos State government has listed an N137,328,000,000 series IV bond on the Nigerian Stock Exchange. NGX says the bond is a 10-Year 13.00 per cent fixed rate unsecured bond due in 2031 under the N500bn debt issuance programme. The bond was listed on Friday. The bond was issued at 100 per cent of par (N1,000).This show is part of the Spreaker Prime Network, if you are interested in advertising on this podcast, contact us at https://www.spreaker.com/show/4090160/advertisement

Personal finance guru, Oluwatosin "Tosin" Olaseinde talks about growing into her role as CEO, her growth as a leader and founder, and how it's okay not to have everything figured out. Founder of financial literacy and investment platforms Money Africa and Ladda, Tosin aims to democratize access and means of wealth-building for the long term. Tosin is famous in the world of personal finance in Africa as she helps others build their knowledge about finances and build their wealth through smart investments. In this episode, Tosin speaks with host Akua Nyame-Mensah about the lessons she's learned, how her keen self-awareness has benefitted her in business, and why liking yourself is so important.Highlights in this episode: Tosin reflects on her recent accomplishments, including receiving an award from the Nigerian Stock Exchange for investor education and financial inclusion.Learn why acknowledging your strengths allows you to address weaknesses.The importance of setting up structures in your business so it can run without you. You don't have to have all the answers; it's okay to learn while doing.Find out about Tosin's background, including her work as a senior financial analyst with CNBC Africa (Lagos) and Bloomberg TV Africa. Learn the economic issues Tosin believes are important for leaders and founders to keep in mind in today's financial climate.How does Tosin make time to share her teachings and thoughts on social media?Tosin talks about her company's future plans, including releasing an app to educate children about money. If you've enjoyed the Open Door Conversations podcast, please leave a review. When you do, you'll receive Akua's 15-minute Thought Leadership LinkedIn Checklist.* It's the routine she has used to expand her network and build relationships on LinkedIn that have directly contributed to her ability to impact many leaders worldwide.Connect with Oluwatosin OlaseindeMoney AfricaWebsite: https://themoneyafrica.com/Linked In: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tosinmoneyafrica/Twitter: https://twitter.com/themoneyafricaInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/moneyafrica/Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/812950645554339LaddaWebsite: https://getladda.com/Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ladda.ng/Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/getladdaTwitter: https://twitter.com/getladdaConnect with Akua Nyame-Mensah:Instagram: @akua_nmLinkedIn: @Akua Nyame-MensahTwitter: @akua_nmWork with Akua one-on-one: www.akuanm.com/workBook Akua to speak at your organization: www.akuanm.com/speaking

Welcome to another episode of Ideas Untrapped. My guest today is Charlie Robertson, who is the chief economist of Renaissance Capital - a global investment bank - and in this episode we talked about the subject of Charlie's new book, "The Time-Travelling Economist''. The book explores the connection between education, electricity, and fertility to economic development. The thrust of the book's argument is that no poor country can escape poverty without education, and that electricity is an important factor for investors looking to build businesses. It also explains that a low fertility rate helps to increase household savings. Charlie argues, with a lot of data and historical parallels, that countries need at least a 70-80% adult literacy rate (defined as being able to read and write four sentences in any language) and cheap electricity (an average of 300 - 500 kWh per capita) in order to industrialize and grow their economies rapidly. Small(er) families (3 children per woman) mean households are able to save more money, which can improve domestic investments by lowering interest rates - otherwise countries may repeatedly stumble into debt crises. We also discussed how increasing education can lead to higher domestic wages, but that this is usually offset by a large increase in the working-age population - and other interesting implications of Charlie's argument.TRANSCRIPTTobi;The usual place I would start with is what inspired you to write it. You mentioned in the book that it was an IMF paper that sort of started your curiosity about the relationship between education, electricity, fertility, and economic development. Generally. So, what was the Eureka moment?Charlie;Yeah, the eureka moment actually came in Kenya, um, because I'd already done a lot of work showing how important education was. It's the most important, no country escapes poverty without education. So I'd already made that clear and there wasn't much debate about that. Perhaps there was a debate about why some countries have gone faster than others, but there wasn't much debate about that. The second thing I was very clear on was electricity, which kept on coming up in meetings across Sub-Saharan Africa, Pakistan, [at] a number of countries, people kept on talking about the importance of electricity. But the eureka moment came when somebody pointed out to me that Kenya, where I was at the time, couldn't afford to build huge excess capacity of electricity, which I was arguing you need to have. You need to have too much electricity, so that it's cheap and it's reliable.And then investors come in and say, "great! I've got cheap educated labour, and I've got cheap reliable electricity. I've got the human capital and the power I need, that then enables me to invest and build a business here." And the question then was, well, why was it so expensive in Kenya but so cheap in China? Why was the cost of borrowing so high in Nigeria but so cheap in Morocco or Mauritius? And when I was trying to work out where did the savings come from in China, uh, well I was looking globally, but China's the best example of economic success and development success we've seen in the last 50 years. Over half the answer came from this IMF paper saying, actually it came from their low fertility rate. That's over half of the rise in household savings, which are massive in China, came about because the fertility rate had fallen so dramatically.And I then thought, could this possibly be true for other countries as well? Could this help explain why interest rates are so high in Nigeria or Kenya and so low elsewhere? And the answer is yes. So this book, The Time Travelling Economist is bringing all of these three things together - the fertility rate, the education rate, and electricity - to say not just how countries develop, cause I think I've answered that, but when they develop. Because once we know those three factors are key, we can then work out the when. Not just in the past [of] countries, but also in the future. Um, so that's where this came from.Tobi;I mean, we're going to be talking about each of those factors over the course of this conversation, but another question...some would say boring question, but I know how development economists and economists generally always try to defend their turf, you know, around issues like these. So, has anybody like taking you to task on the causal link between these three factors and development? And how would you defend yourself against that were it to be asked?Charlie;I haven't found anyone yet who's argued successfully against these points. Um, the closest criticism I get, and just to say, you know, this book came about off the back of three key reports I did in 2017 on education, 2018 on electricity, and 2019 on fertility and savings. So I've now been talking about these ideas for three to five years. The book only came out in July, 2022, bringing them all together. But in five years I haven't had pushback other than people ask, "is it not correlated?" You know, "is it not perhaps economic growth leads fertility declines or boosts savings?" And I think I show really clearly in the data that "no." Um, the fertility declines give us the growth. You don't get growth without adult literacy of at least 40%, you certainly don't get industrialization until literacy is at 70 to 80.So, you know, I'm looking at the data and I think it's pretty crystal clear that you've gotta get these other things right first before your economy can take off. And I can't find any counter-examples. Except, I mean there's the inevitable few, those countries like Qatar or Kuwait with huge amounts of energy exports per capita or diamonds in Botswana's case. And there you don't have to get everything right before you get wealthier because you just happen to be lucky to have huge amounts of energy exports per person and a very small population. But they are a bit of an exception. I think you could probably argue that they do grow first before they get everything else right. But for the vast majority of the planet and all countries in history, it's the other way around. You gotta get education, power, fertility rates in the right place to take off.Tobi;So I mean, getting into the weeds, let's look at education first. Before your book, personally for me, and I should say what I really like about your book is, it's well written, it's an interesting read. It comes across as a bit less analytical, which is what you get from the standard development literature, you know, and I think that's partly because you are writing about a lot of the countries that you have also worked in and interacted with a lot of these factors. So it really gives it a first-hand experience kind of narrative. So I like that very much. So prior to your book, if someone were to ask me about the relationship between education and economic development or catch-up growth, generally, the reference usually goes to Studwell's big claim, Joe Studwell, that: Yeah. You don't really need a super high level of education metrics for a country to industrialize because the standard explanation is that how a relatively poor country starts industrializing is from the low-skill, uh, labour-intensive, low-skill manufacturing jobs, that you don't need a high level of education and skill for you to be able to do that.So what I wanna work out here is what is the transmission mechanism between adult literacy and industrialization the way you've, like, clearly analyzed in your book?Charlie;Well, thank you very much for saying it was nicely written, I appreciate that. I wanted to try and make it as accessible as possible. Yeah, I think Joe Studwell's books are really good and I think he's right that you don't need a high level of education to do that first step out of rural poverty, subsistence farming into a textile mill. I think what's interesting is how many people writing about development forget how important just adult literacy actually is, because we've taken [it] so much for granted. So Adam Smith, who wrote The Wealth of Nations, the father of economics back in the 18th century in Scotland, he didn't make a big deal about adult literacy driving growth. And more recently, you know, people like Dani Rodrik have echoed exactly that saying you don't need any great education to work in a textile mill. You just need to be dextrous with your fingers. Which is almost exactly actually what Adam Smith said 250 years ago. And I was sympathetic to that, but I then kept on seeing in the data, well, first of all, I found this theory written in the sixties that said that no country has industrialized even to that first basic level of textiles without adult literacy being about 70 to 80% of the population. Which means basically all adults, all men, plus well over half the female population as well. And this was the theory written in the sixties and when I looked at the data, it was proven right and I couldn't quite understand why - if you just need dextrous fingers to work in a textile mill, why would there be that link? And I ended up talking to a guy who ran Levi's factories in Asia in the 1980s and he said, “Charlie, just think about it.”You've got this box of Levi's jeans coming down the conveyor belt. Do you put that box onto the truck labelled United States or that truck labelled Europe for export? And if you can't read and write, you won't even get that right. So the adult literacy thing I think is overlooked. People are focusing on secondary school, high school education, how much [many] university graduates a country needs and they do need graduates too. But until you get to that 70 to 80% adult literacy, textile mills don't go to a country. And we can see that they did go to China in the nineties when they got to adult literacy of 70%. They are in Southeast Asia. They're in Bangladesh since education hit about 70 to 80% in the last 10 to 15 years. But they're not big in sub-Saharan Africa, or at least in parts of Nigeria or the Sahel or West Africa because the education levels still aren't there yet. So, you know, I looked as far back as I could go to the 19th century and even the first non-European country to take off, Japan, had an adult literacy rate of about 70% by 1900 and 20 years later, they had a thriving textile industry. The education always comes first. And Korea copied that Japan model in the 1950s and sixties, Taiwan, Hong Kong, all the rest [of] Southeast Asia's followed. Now, South Asia's doing it and luckily it's spreading across Africa too. But the adult literacy is the first essential step.Tobi;One possible objection. And I haven't seen this anywhere, but I couldn't really get it out of my mind while I was reading that part of the book is that some will argue that increasing education also increases domestic wages and that is really a problem for industrializing. And, if I recall, one particular point that the anonymous economic historian on Twitter, Pseudoerasmus, made particularly about Asia, is they were able to combine a very high adult literacy rate - a measure which you use is completion of secondary education…Charlie;Yeah.Tobi;With very unusually low domestic wages. What role do wages play in your analysis?Charlie;I think that's the norm actually. It connects to the fertility thing. And I'm not sure if you want to jump there just yet, but what tends to happen when you've educated your population is that the fertility rate drops a lot. And when that happens, the number of people who have to stay at home looking after 5, 6, 7 children goes down a lot too. Women can go into the workforce and of course cause you've got the education, right? Those women are educated so they can join the industrial workforce as well. So very roughly, if we say there's a hundred people in Nigeria, 50 kids and 50 adults, let's say 25 of the adults have to be staying at home to look after 50 kids, you're talking 25% of the population can go out and work of the overall population. You go to Asia today and it's more like 70% adults, say 30% of kids.So you need maybe 15% of adults to stay at home. And you end up with something like 85% of the whole population can go out to work instead of 25%. Now, the consequence of that is a massive rise in the working-age population. And I think that that keeps industrial wages low for a few generations, in fact. Or at least three decades. Probably 40 years, where the education's come through, the fertility rates come down, you've got this huge excess supply of labour, which is then joining the industrial workforce and getting jobs. But because there keeps on being more people joining that workforce, it keeps wages relatively low. Now, what eventually happens then after a few decades is that that big increase in the workforce stops increasing as fast. We've seen this in China in the last 20 years. So, 20 years ago China's per capita GDP was about fifteen hundred dollars, $1,500.Whereas now, now the population has stopped growing. Working age population's shrinking. It's gone up to over $11,500. It's gone up tenfold. So the big reward for industrialization comes later. And we had this in Europe of course in the 19th century, you know, wages were pretty awful and industrial working was pretty awful experience in the 19th century. I mean it paid slightly better than rural subsistence farming, which is why people came to the cities. But London was a horrible place for the vast majority of people. And the industrial workhouses were terrible places as well. And that lasted for generations. It's only when that big population, kind of, boom stories started to shift that labour eventually got any bargaining power. Cause when there was too much labour coming into the market, they had no bargaining power with the factory owners. It wasn't until the 1870s that the trade unions became legal in, say, the United States. Because up till then, you know, "you join a union, I fire you," you know, could be what the factory owner would say in the United States, cause there's always gonna be another person I can employ. But once the workforce starts to gain a bit of bargaining power, cause it's not expanding quite so fast, then finally wages start to pick up. So I think what's happened in Asia is pretty normal and will probably be the experience that we've seen across Africa as well.Tobi;Inevitably this will take us into what it means to be educated, really. Because a lot of countries, I mean it's pretty much standard - they say, Oh yeah, we want invest in education. Um, we know it is important for human capital. We know how important it is to have an educated population and all that. You talked about some data challenges also for some countries in your book. So what I wanna ask here is what exactly does it mean to be educated in the sense that you are talking about in the book?Charlie;Yeah, this is a really fair question. Why am I talking about adult literacy? The definition is can you read and write four sentences in any language? Sentences like "farming is hard work." So it's not a very high threshold and I wouldn't argue, I don't think you would, that it's highly educated. It's just educated enough to put that box of jeans onto the right truck when it's going to America or Europe. But all that's doing then is taking your country's per capita GDP from your per person kind of wealth from say $500 a year, a thousand dollars a year to the kind of two, $3,000 a year level. It doesn't mean you've got the education levels you need to get to the $10,000 per capita GDP level growth or 20 or 50 or even a hundred. Um, to get to the 10,000 level, I think you probably need very good secondary school education as well.And to get to the $20,000 per capital GDP level, you're talking a lot of graduates coming out of university and you need to have that education then spreading throughout the population, both broadening and deeper education as well. And that is a process that takes decades. I mean I focused quite a bit on Korea because it was one of the most successful models and then China came along and did it even faster. But what Korea prioritized in the 1950s was getting that adult literacy rate from 35% or so, too low even to grow sustainably, to about 90% they said by 1960. So in about 10 or 15 years they got it from 35 to 90 and that was enough then to have textile mills do really well in the 1960s and they became a manufacturing country, an industrialized country by the early 1970s.But already then the government said, right, we need more engineers, we need graduates coming out of university to do heavy industry, to do cars, shipbuilding. But Korea had no cars or shipbuilding at the time, nothing significant. So they were changing the university focus from, kind of, the arts or law towards engineering and the sciences before they had the economic sectors that they were trying to promote. And then about 10 to 20 years later, all these graduates were then in the economy and ready to start up companies like Deawoo, Hyundai, Kia, Samsung. And they started small obviously in the 1980s and early nineties. But this kind of sequential thinking about it meant that Korea kept on having the right human capital at every stage of development. So my book's trying to focus on, you know, why hasn't Pakistan got all the textile factories?Why does Bangladesh have them? Why doesn't Nigeria have them? Why does Vietnam have them? And this is saying first you've gotta get that sequencing right of everybody ideally being literate, everybody having had school up to 11 years old and come out with a good standard of education. On the quality issue you just raised, the problem here is a couple of things. So I mean firstly people sometimes just make up the data and say, yes, my population is literate when it's not. But secondly, when you try and kind of shoehorn a hundred kids into one class to say, you know, they're all going to school now, but you've only got one teacher, you are not coming out with a good education at all. You might not even be coming out literate at all. So that, you know, I'm also trying to warn that governments can't do this on the cheap. Or not completely. They have to take it seriously and say, look, we actually need to make sure everyone really is coming out able to read and write. It's not just trying to tick a box to say everyone's at school.Tobi;Hopefully, we'll circle back to policy questions around this later. Let's talk briefly about electricity, which as you say, once you start investigating these factors, then you start teasing out what's what for each country. And the way you introduce that is [that] there are some countries with very high adult literacy rates but still weren't getting the benefits - like [the] Philippines, which was your example in the book. And it turns out what was missing in that particular case was electricity generation. But first I want you to make one distinction for me quite quickly. Cause it's funny, I was reading David Pilling's brief coverage of your book in the FT and he talked about the fertility part being controversial and I wonder that people miss the obvious controversy in electricity, but we'll get to that. So, now, is it really about investment in electricity that is often missing in countries that can't quite manage to get it right or the way their electricity market is structured? I know you are quite familiar with Nigeria and it's really a big, big, big debate that we've been having for, I don't know, like 20 years. So, some people will say you need very large upfront investment, possibly by the government, in generating capacity transmission, machinery and co. We argue, oh no, you really need to restructure the electricity market first. People have to pay for what they use. You need to restructure the tariff system, blah blah blah, blah, blah. What are your thoughts?Charlie;Um, big issues. And there is a debate. There're so many debates about this actually. There's the debate about whether you need a big national grid, big national generation and distribution companies or whether you can have localized electricity. Um, you are getting a couple of points though that I think it's easier to say some answers to. And one of them was to do with getting people to actually pay their bills. Certainly a problem in Nigeria, apparently, you know, discos will say that because there hasn't been good metering and despite privatization that those meters have not been rolled out. I know the government's promising to roll it out to all 10 million account holders now, but because there hasn't been metering, you can't charge necessarily the fair price for the amount of electricity people have used. So then people don't wanna pay. So then the discos are losing money, then they can't pay the generators and this then becomes a problem.And I think there is a case to say that if the generators can sell some power directly to some big companies, that could be one way around part of the problem. So in a place like Lagos, very similar to the Philippines in the 20th century, good educated population just held back by a lack of cheap reliable power. You know, I think if Lagos could have its own electricity story, it would be a phenomenally successful economy. It should be over the next three or four decades. So there is a case about how you structure this. But I found two or three things interesting when I was looking into this issue in 2018. And the first was just clarifying that it really is electricity that people need more than say transport infrastructure. You know, this is a survey the world bank had done and the only countries where they've said transport infrastructure was the bigger problem was countries where there wasn't an electricity problem because there's so much of it.So countries, where there's a load of electricity, say yes we need more transport infrastructure, but everybody else says we have to have the electricity first. So then it's a question of how do you roll that out in a way that makes money and supports development? And there is a... I think, a problem at the moment with well-meaning policies from people like the United Nations or the African Development Bank saying everybody should have access to electricity. But my point in the book is, and Adam Smith said the same thing in the 18th century, you want your infrastructure to be making money not losing money. You need to make sure that if you're going to supply people with a road or a bridge or electricity, that they can pay for it. And if you start building stuff that loses you money because people can't pay their bills, then you'll end up with an uneconomic electricity system which can't function properly and can't give industry what it needs.And what I try to emphasize in this is that every country from America and France in the 1920s to Turkey in the 1960s or seventies to Korea in the 1970s, every country has said, okay, let's make sure we've got electricity for industry first. Profitable, makes money, and then households over time? Yeah, okay, we'll connect them over time, but only when they can start affording to pay for electricity. It's not another subsidy that governments can't afford, we just can't do that. [This] is what every other country's done. But at the moment I do see this pressure for electricity systems to try and roll out universal access and so, in places like Kenya that's putting the whole electricity system under financial pressure because it's hurting their profits. And if you're trying to roll out cheap electricity to households, well how do you pay for that?Well, government subsidies partly, but the other way to pay for it is to make industry pay a high price. But if you're making industry pay a high price industry won't come. They'll go to Asia; where they get a low price for electricity. They're not going to go to somewhere that's got a high price. Cause no company's gonna say, I just wanna subsidize households getting electricity. Companies are coming to build stuff in countries because they'll make a good profit from doing so. So I think you've raised a number of issues there, you know, is localized electricity good, and so on? You know, what should you be prioritizing first - industry or households? And there's a whole host of issues. But I hope I've answered that.Tobi;Actually, that's the controversy I was referring to at the beginning of that question because the background that is, it'll be a very, very tough sell in the current political climate, for example in Nigeria, for any person aspiring to public office to make this argument that you have to power industry first. What it's going to sound like is: you are just trying to prioritize the rich and trying to exclude some people from what, like you said, has come to be framed as a universal basic right. You talk to a lot of small businesses, even individuals, like you mentioned with the World Bank Survey, the importance of electricity is so paramount on everybody's mind that if there's stable electricity, I can start X and Y businesses. I could make money and, I mean, no one needs the government for anything else. Just give us electricity.Charlie;Yeah.Tobi;So my point is practically… thinking about this practically, how do you think a sensible government that is not trying to bankrupt itself prematurely can manage this situation?Charlie;Well, I think it's hard work. Um, how did the Koreans do it in the sixties or the seventies or the eighties? They gave you no right to protest - military government. How did the communists do so well at getting this industry first, households later? How did they get it right in China or Russia? Same thing. You've got no rights to protest. "Your interests don't matter, we're thinking 10 to 20 years ahead how to make our country better off and how to make everyone better off. So you suffer now because we are gonna prioritize business." So that is one model. I'm not recommending it, I'm just saying it is a model that can be done. The other way is to allow it to be done by the private sector. And if you let the private sector roll out electricity, they will not supply electricity to people who won't pay their bills.And that is the story that you saw in western Europe, it's the story you saw in the States, and to some extent you're seeing actually in Kenya. There's quite an interesting company there called M-KOPA. And M-KOPA will sell you, well, they'll lend you, they'll lease you, a solar panel, a little one that you can put on your - actually, a friend of mine was showing it to me the other day in Uganda...they put it on the straw roof of the mud hut and that solar panel, you pay a monthly fee and after about 18 months you've paid for the panel, you've also got energy during that time enough to supply a mobile phone and so on, lights a little bit, and then it's yours and that's effectively privatizing that rural distribution story. But I think the difficulty is that politicians find it really hard to do this.And part of what I'm writing about in the book is how really hard it is for governments in a country with no savings, big population growth, to constantly meet all of the different demands. With huge population growth you're having to build new schools all the time, you have to hire even more teachers all the time. You've got population pressure, maybe, causing clashes over agricultural land like the Fulani herdsman in Central Nigeria, Northern Nigeria as well. And all of these pressures are on you all of the time. And there's constant demand to spend more on bridges, on hospitals, on education, on security. And what you can't afford to be doing is making a loss. And so I think what politicians need to do is say, we've gotta sequence this right. The same thing as with education. It's no good having a million university graduates if a country isn't literate enough to have an industrial base, you've gotta have the literacy first.And equally, it's no good having electricity rolled out to every household when there are no factories for people to go and get the jobs they need to be able to pay the electricity bill. And it's not easy. I, I totally understand it's not an easy situation for anyone to be in. The difficulty is [that] because it's not easy, too many political leaders will take what appears to be the easy option of saying, "I tell you what, let's just go and borrow a load of dollars offshore. Nigeria's going to go and issue a lot of dollar debt and we'll use that to try and sort these problems out." Kenya's done the same, Ghana's done the same, Pakistan's done the same. And the risk then is that you end up in default situations. So that feeds into one of the other chapters in the book as well.But I think it's very difficult. I think realistically governments need to say, what can we do here? And this is how long it's going to take. And it's going to be not a five-year story, it's going be a 20-year story, a 30-year story to get it right. And people, sadly, need to be patient, which is hard; when for generations people have been waiting for things to get much, much better and little progress has been made, relatively little progress has been made compared to Asia and that causes a lot of political frustration. I think.Tobi;I mean, speaking about Asia and I mean your point about taking away the right to protest, I think Africa and Nigeria sort of missed that window when we had military governments everywhere. So, uh, let me give you one experience I've had in trying to discuss your book with friends. So I get two reactions to the fertility section.It's almost automatic, you know, when you discuss fertility being at a certain level and I try to, you know, successfully argue your point, you get two strands of reactions in my experience, one goes immediately to the China issue - the one-child policy; that, "oh, so are you trying to say we should do what China did?" The other slightly more technical objection I get goes to the relationship between population growth and economic growth that is quite pervasive in the growth literature. Did you also experience that while writing the book and debating with colleagues?Charlie;Now I'll take each point in turn. Um, the China one-child policy story helps explain this massive rise in Chinese savings and then their very strong growth. What I'm trying to show in the book, of course, is that every rich country has seen a fertility decline. And what I'm arguing is probably the right sort of level for countries to aim for is about two to three kids on average. I don't care if people have five kids or one kid, it's just as a country the average of two to three kids is consistent with a very high, well, a big jump in the level of sayings. And with those savings, you can then industrialize and grow, and grow fast. Um, China I think actually made a mistake. I think China got it wrong by going for the one-child policy because they kind of turbocharged that story, that story that every rich country has got, of lower fertility, it took a really long time in Europe. I mean it took a really, really long time in Europe and that's why Europe had the slowest growth of any industrial revolution. It was done faster by the communism [they had] in Russia and they did faster growth and we've done even faster in China. But the consequence of this one-child policy and what the Chinese have discovered is it's bloody hard to get the fertility rate back up again once you've had one kid. I was talking to a Chinese professor on a plane back from Asia once and she was saying all of her friends, they can't get married, they can't stay married. They get married and they can't stay married because they're all used to being a one-child kind of princess or prince in the family who gets everything they want and then they try married life and they discover as you might well know, that you never get everything you want in a marriage, and you have to compromise.And it's certainly created a problem now that China can't get the kids, they can't raise the fertility level and it's not just China that's discovered that once you've got a low fertility rate, too low, I think of one, you have a problem raising it. Again, Italy's had the same problem, Iran, uh, Russia. So I think China did it too fast. And you certainly don't need to do it and loads of other countries show you that just aiming for that two to three kids figure really helps your economy and gets you onto the path to being middle-income and then a rich country. So I don't think you need to do the China one child. No. Um, the second issue, the population growth versus economic growth. What I show, what we did in this was we looked back at every country's growth rate since 1960 and I compared the per capita GDP growth, the per personal growth of an economy, it's the best way to measure how well an economy itself is really doing. And I compared that growth rate against the share of adults to kids that I was talking to you about a little earlier.Tobi;Yeah.Charlie;And where it's 50-50 roughly, between adults and kids, per capita GDP grows at 1% and that was the story of Asia in the sixties and seventies. It's still the story for a good number of countries including Nigeria today. So per capita GDP growth is about 1% when half your population can't work because they're kids. But once you get two-thirds of the population being adults, your average per capita growth in lower-income countries by half of America's wealth level, so not even lower-income, lower or middle-income countries, your per capita growth, and it averages three to 5% a year. So the structure of your population tells you what your per capita GDP growth is. So it's just... I can't see that there's any other way to explain this than you've gotta get that fertility rate down first before you can start to get the high per capita GDP growth. Um, and it's connected to the savings, of course; cause once you've got two kids instead of six, you're saving money in the bank, the bank starts to have more cash to lend out. There's more money for lending for investment. The government can borrow more cheaply so it can build infrastructure, roads and rail, electricity and cheap electricity cause interest rates are low cause the savings are high because most families are able to put some money aside at the end of the week. But that doesn't happen when 50% of the population are kids. They're not earning any money, they're not saving anything and the poor parents are trying to manage to feed five, six kids on average. You know, they've got nothing left at the end of the week to put into a bank.So the bank's got no cash. So interest rates are really high cause there's no money in the bank. Um, so money's really expensive. So the government can't afford to invest in infrastructure and if it does build electricity it has to charge a lot of money cause it's having to pay a lot of interest on the debt it's taken on. So to me, I've yet to find someone demolish the argument and uh, you know, it could happen.Tobi;Yeah.Charlie;But so far it seems you've got to get the fertility rate down first if you want to get fast growth. Now if you don't want to grow at three, four, 5% a year, you could do it really slowly like Europe did and you grow at say, one and a half, two, eventually, you get from European farming in 1800 to factories that are producing not great stuff by 1900, a hundred years later. But when I'm looking at Nigeria today, I don't want Nigeria to be waiting a hundred years to be doing what Europe took a hundred years to do. I also don't think the Chinese model of it taking 30 years, 20, 30 years but then having a population problem of being too old, I don't think that's the right solution either. But there's somewhere in between. At the moment though, Nigeria's on that long growth story, it's not yet ready for the faster growth storyTobi;On the China question, um, thinking about your answer there, is extremely low fertility or what they say "fertility below the replacement rate" a feature of the kind of explosive growth 30, 35, 40-year trajectory that we've seen in Asia. Because if you look at Korea, Korea even have worse demographic numbers than China and there was no draconian population policy, but it's kind of gone through this explosive growth phase that is even faster and bigger than China's.Charlie;Well, it's been going on for longer. So what the Koreans got right was they raised their adult literacy rate to, you know, they said about 90% by 1960. China, despite being communist and communists tend to say they really appreciate education, didn't get to over 70% literacy until 1990, sometime in the early 1990s, which is 25, 35 years later than Korea. Uh, so Korea was already booming in 1970 at a time when China was having the catastrophic mistakes of the cultural revolution and really bad growth and people feared mass famine. Well many, many did die in China in the sixties. So what I would argue is that Korea had a slower fertility decline and the growth rates were not as fast as China's but they've been growing for 50, 60 years already. So Korea's two to three times richer than China is today. But as you say, they're so ageing that they're gonna be the oldest country in the world by 2030.And what's gonna get interesting then, and I can't really answer this in the book cause we haven't seen it yet, but what's interesting about Korea and we're going to have to watch it carefully, is that you are going to end up with, not 70% adults and 30% kids, it'll be less and less working-age adults, maybe 60%, I dunno maybe eventually 50% and it'll be 50% kids and old age pensioners who can't work. And my guess is that Korean growth is going to slow back to about the 1% per capita growth that Nigeria's got at the moment because Korea's going to be too old. You know, and that's not something that I think people should be thinking about or worrying about. [People should be thinking about] Pakistan, East Africa, Southern Africa, West Africa at the moment. It's [Korea is] just not a...you know, that's a problem to worry about in 50, 60 years. But it is going to be interesting to watch what does happen to growth in really old countries. Um, can pensioners actually still do work? You know, maybe they end up retiring at 70 or 75 or 80, I dunno. It's gonna be quite interesting to see.Tobi;So I mean the question then is, uh, for countries that have fertility rates that are higher than what you described in the book.Charlie;Yeah.Tobi;It then becomes how do we get it to the point where domestic savings start going up, interest rate for the domestic investment environment then benefits from that virtuous cycle. You talked about access to uh, reproductive interventions like contraception, also education, which takes us to where we started this conversation from, especially the education of women and girls, generally. I was taking a look at David Le Bris recently where he was talking about equality between siblings and inequality between siblings and how it affects the overall capital formation, whether it's physical capital or human capital in the society. So my question then is, do you see individual sort of personalized household decision-making affecting this more or it is sort of a national policy thing?Charlie;When it's something as important as family, you know, the individual decisions matter a huge amount. And as I said earlier, I've got no issues with anyone doing what they choose to do. But that big family story, I was just talking to a former minister, actually, of a... former finance minister of a country and he's got five kids, he's saying that he's been able to help fund them go to university, but he can't afford to help them buy a house cause he just hasn't got the cash. And I thought that was a really interesting example of even in a wealthier country, you know, it still matters how big that family is. You know, when I looked into this on how do you get the fertility rate down and there's been quite a lot written about it. I don't have a magic or a single answer, but the theories are first: girls if they're staying at school until they're 18, versus girls who leave school at 13. If you leave school at 13, perhaps you have your first kid at 14, maybe a second kid at 17, third kid at 20. But if you stay at school until you're 18, perhaps the first kid's at 20. So already you've reduced the fertility rate by two just by keeping girls at school. And the key figure, but just kind of remind, well tell people is the key figure is at about three to four kids per woman on average, the banking system has got deposits cash in it of about 35% of GDP, at four to five kids, it's around 30, 25 to 30. At five to six kids, which is where Nigeria is, it's about 20% of GDP. Um, so 20, 30, you know, these sort of levels. If you get to two to three kids though, if you get it below three kids, it more than doubles to about 60% of GDP.That's when banks suddenly have loads of cash. When banks have got loads of cash, there's loads of lending, suddenly access to finance isn't a problem anymore. So how do you get it below three kids? So you educate girls, there's an incentive when women are educated for them to work cause they can start to make decent money in a textile factory that you can't do unless you've got that literacy. Um, the government just telling people that low fertility is a good thing is shown to have some success. From Indonesia to India, these kinds of government campaigns suggesting lower fertility rates have made a difference. The third thing, which really surprised me cause it's such a strong correlation, is [to] stop kids [from] dying. And I was pretty upset, actually, to see the numbers where, for Nigeria, you've got a 10% chance, just over a 10% chance of dying before the age of five because you're born in Nigeria. And when I was comparing that to Covid - which the world spent, what, trillions trying to fight - with a fatality rate of about one or 2%, you think of those with more than a 10% chance of dying just before the age of five in Nigeria. Anyway, it's kind of shockingly high, but when you have such a high chance of losing a child, you tend to have more children and the correlation is really quite strong. So, if you can try and address infant, [and] young child mortality rates, which doesn't cost that much, you can see countries with Nigeria's wealth level that have a mortality rate of not over 10%, but five or even 3%. And usually, countries with such a low mortality rate then have a much lower fertility rate as well. So, people tend to have less kids when they are more confident that all their kids are going to survive childhood. So, some investment in basic healthcare for children, education of girls, contraception availability, yes it does help, and government information campaigns. You put those things together and then you get a country like Bangladesh. Bangladesh which had the same population as Nigeria about 15 years ago. But today Nigeria's got tens of millions more. But Bangladesh is growing as fast as India. Bangladesh's per capita GDP is over $2,000. And it keeps on growing at six, seven, 8% every year. Because they have on average two kids per woman, they've got savings, they don't have much foreign debt because they don't need to borrow dollars from abroad to fund their growth, because they've got their own savings, because the fertility rate is low. Muslim Bangladesh: tremendous success story over the last two or three decades.Tobi;You sort of made allowances for countries that can't quite get their savings right up to the levels where they can get the desired domestic savings and really positively affect their investment environment in a big way. And you talked about debt in the book, which would be familiar to anybody that's been in the new cycle about Nigeria currently, which is that government revenue has collapsed. Debt servicing is rapidly approaching a hundred percent of what the government can collect. And it's only a matter of time before we are talking about a debt crisis. But, like you said, a debt crisis is, like, unavoidable if you're trying to grow and you don't have to requisite domestic savings to sort of mitigate that. But this inevitably brings in the question of debt restructuring which, again, some would also argue does not help you grow. So, in terms of just the sheer macroeconomics management of this, how do you go about it?Charlie;It's tough. The book's arguing, obviously, that a whole chunk of this stuff is really long term. You got to get the education right. So, you've got to have enough teachers and that takes, well, at best Korea did it in 15, 20 years. But even if you've got the education, then you've got to get the fertility rate down. And that takes at best 10 years to get it down by about two kids per woman. Nigeria's at 5.3 kids or so at the moment. It needs to be below three to have the local savings. So, we're talking at least 15 years, even if every priority was made today to try and improve education, do all this reproductive education and so on. So, the governments then have the choice of what do you do? I mean, if you're going to wait 15 years, you can grow at 1% a year per person. But you'll find the population is getting pretty cross because you've got all these other countries in the world growing at three, four, 5% per person every year. You know, why is my country growing at one [percent]? So, the politicians then...[it] becomes so attractive to go out and borrow and, you know, every country, not every single one, but the vast majority of debt defaults in the second half of the 20th century were in high fertility countries. The fertility rate I think was around, on average, five - five kids per woman was the average fertility rate in countries that defaulted in the second half of the 20th century. Wherever they were in the world. A lot of them were in Latin America in the debt crisis of 1980s. So firstly, debt crises are really common in high fertility countries because governments say I want to speed up my growth and they borrow when the markets let them.And we've certainly seen that in Africa in the last 10 years too. And then they borrow too much and then they go into default and then they can lose maybe a decade. And that is what happened in Latin America in the 1980s. But the alternative is to only grow at 1% a year. And yeah, you can avoid debt default. I'm not saying every high fertility country defaults. I'm saying almost all the countries that have defaulted are high fertility. So, you can settle for the low growth but if you don't want to settle for the low growth, the debt becomes a very attractive way to try and get faster growth. But it causes a problem. I end up finding roughly two other ways that you can try.Tobi;Okay.Charlie;And grow faster. Is it okay to jump on to those?Tobi;Yeah, go ahead please.Charlie;Yeah. First is to try and bring in as much foreign investment as you can. Cause you haven't got enough local savings, you don't want to take on too much debt cause eventually you'll default. So, you can try and make yourself very attractive for foreign investors. Foreign direct investors. The only problem with that model is that those foreign direct investors do also want their cheap electricity and the good infrastructure that unfortunately high fertility countries haven't got the money to pay for. So, it's difficult to get in a lot of foreign direct investment. Foreign direct investment in China, I was just reading a really good book by David Lubin, who's the chief economist of Citi for Emerging Markets and he did a book called Dance of the Trillions. Highly recommend, it's brilliant on emerging markets. And he says FDI suddenly started in China in the 1990s. Now, I know why. My book is explaining why I think, which is you finally had a literate population, 70% literacy and you also had the low fertility rate. So, you had the high savings, you had the good infrastructure. But the FDI didn't come 10 years before into China. It only really picked up in the 1990s. So, the point of then is, I mean yeah, try and get some [FDI] if you can, but the last option that I can see other than to just, perhaps, try to go full Stalinist, kind of communist, take control of every part of the economy. But even that still education and low fertility really helps... Um, the last option which any country can do is to run a current account surplus, I think. Have a currency level that's so cheap that you are running a trade surplus. A current account surplus, which is obviously trade plus services and remittances and so on.If you've got a surplus on that current account, you are bringing dollars into the economy and those dollars help reduce interest rates. And Nigeria saw that actually in 2005, six, seven and eight when the oil price was booming. Nigeria had that flood of dollars coming into the economy. Interest rates were really low below inflation and investment was relatively cheap and easy to finance. Now it's a problem to manage when it's a commodity-driven boom because commodities then bust. So, all that flood of money that came in suddenly disappeared again, you know, once the oil price collapsed there wasn't that current account surplus anymore. But if you run a cheap currency policy to make sure you always run a current account surplus, then that helps give you that supply of savings that you can then use to start investing. So that seems to me one of the few ways that a low-income country that's got not enough local savings, doesn't want to wait forever until its fertility rate's down [and] low enough to build the domestic savings, this is one way that looks sustainable that can bring in some foreign cash to help support growth.Tobi;But one minor aside on FDI and you can really correct me here if I'm wrong, wouldn't that really be a bit unstable? Because if you have loads of FDI, if other indicators are really working in your favour and at the slightest hint of a crisis, all that money then flows out.Charlie;Yeah. Well, I'll just differentiate between foreign direct investment and foreign portfolio investment. And, again, David Lubin's book is very good on this because the Washington consensus, which is this set of policies that were drawn up by policy makers around 1989, 1990, it said countries should welcome foreign direct investment. Building factories that it's pretty hard to move out of the country, that that should be welcomed. But when the original guys who drew up the Washington Consensus wrote down the kind of 10 principles, they weren't that keen on foreign portfolio investment. This is the hot money that will include a lot of my investors who will come in and buy shares in companies in the Nigerian Stock Exchange and might come in and buy bonds. And I think it's fair to say that that money can leave in times of trouble and doesn't really support...isn't necessarily as supportive [of growth] and that money we count on the capital account because it is foreign capital.What I was talking about on the current account surplus was obviously the trade surplus, the remittances, the services and so on. So, I think it's more debatable. I think a number of countries have restricted foreign portfolio flows into equity market or the bond market. And if they've got other things going for them, like a low fertility rate, they can kind of get away with that. Um, what I'm highlighting is that for some countries they just don't have that choice. And when America was short of capital in the 19th century, it was British capital that went over and built their railways, that bought all the shares in their infrastructure companies. The Brits owned America for much of the 19th century and then the French actually owned most of Russia. Uh, the railways and the ports and some of the industry, the coal mines [were] very significantly owned by French investors, portfolio funds, and portfolio guys are there to make money as well. You know, they're there to make profit and if you're making good profit, five, 10% a year or whatever sitting in Nigerian equity market, people will stay, and it won't leave. They'll be happy to stay there for many, many years as people are and have been doing in India, actually, since India's education fertility and electricity numbers have all come together in the last 10 years in a really good way. Foreign portfolio guys are saying, "Hey, we wanna put our money into the Indian stock market too." And Indian shares are pretty expensive right now because of that. But the money doesn't want to leave. It'll leave when policy mistakes are made but fundamentally doesn't want to leave. However, I don't deny that there is a reasonable argument you can make to say we're going to choose foreign direct investment, we're going to be more restrictive on foreign portfolio investment. Because that can be more volatile. It can leave quicker. And I wouldn't argue with that. Well, I mean we could debate it, but I think it's harder to prove that you must have foreign portfolio investments to thrive. I think the current account surplus is a better policy choice because it's in your control. Foreign portfolio investors and what they do, that's not in your control.Tobi;One question that stayed with me throughout your book, which is a bit silent in the book itself, maybe it's implied, you can tell me, is that it's really difficult to find a country at any particular point where all these three factors align at the same time. Where you have the requisite adult literacy rate, electricity and fertility, they rarely align at the same point in time in the history of any one country. Because your book did not really distinguish between any particular political preference or institutional arrangements, which I like that, but what institutional arrangement favours the consistency for all these factors to sort of come together, uh, in the economic history basically of a country. Because we know that political leaders tend to favour what benefits their ambition at any particular point in time, you know? And a lot of these things are investments that do pay off in the long run, you know? Like we talked about on savings, a lot of political leaders would want to borrow a lot of money and then leave the debt crisis to the next administration.Charlie;Yeah. Yeah. Happens a lot.Tobi;Yeah. You know, and so many other things, whether you are investing in electricity or education or whatever, they don't really want to do the hard work. They want to do the easy stuff and just leave it to the next guy.So, what institutional arrangements have you found in your observation and study of this that favours the patient consistent build-up to the alignment of these three factors?Charlie;I think it's really, um, it's kind of interesting actually because in each chapter I try and say which countries are at the right place for industrialization, education, which countries are at the right place for electricity, and which countries are at the right place for fertility. Perhaps I didn't properly bring that together in one chapter at the end to say, "so, who's the fast growth story?" But right now, the countries that have brought them together are Vietnam, India, Philippines, Indonesia, Bangladesh, and I think those five countries, Morocco actually six, um, those six countries should be the countries that will show the really good growth for the next 30 to 40 years. Um it's going to be great. And I'm then trying to highlight who's closest to joining them on a 10 year view. Um, Pakistan and Egypt both got big debt problems right now, but five to 10 years they could be joining that group as well and Ghana and actually Kenya and I would argue southern Nigeria could be, could be there in the 2030s.Um, so I am trying to say when they come together. The question you are asking, though, about institutions or perhaps leadership and so on, I think is a really important one because I guess this book in lots of ways is an argument against Why Nations Fail, which was a really interesting book; and [it] said it is all about institutions and the right institutions and that's why if you walk a kilometre across the US border into Mexico, things are run so very differently. It's got to be the institutions, that book argues, that makes the difference between a country succeeding or not. And what I'm arguing is that I don't think that's true. I think you appear to have the good institutions when everything else is running well and you appear to have the terrible institutions when you don't have the education or you don't have the electricity or you don't have the low fertility or worst of all, you haven't got any of them.So, a country that hasn't got any of them, like Niger, Chad, Somalia, you know, these are countries in a terrible place. But I'm saying that they can't have good institutions cause there's no money in the economy, there are not enough educated people in the economy. There's just no way that you're going to get a good setup in those countries. And actually, even at the beginning when, at the first 10 years or so, when you've got these things all coming together, you still don't think the institutions are good. You know, you go to India today, people don't think, "wow, this is a brilliantly run civil service. It's so uncorrupt[ed]." Such wonderful institutions everywhere. They don't say that. They don't say that about Philippines' Duterte, the president who's been just recently retired, by people who were worried the institutions found it difficult to control his populism. And yet Philippines boomed under Duterte, and India's boomed under Modi and countries like Korea boomed even with a level of corruption that means in the last 10 years we've seen four presidents go to jail for corruption.Um, so I argue that the better institutions come afterwards and that's why four presidents have gone to jail in Korea because they're now getting the institutions better. And I read a really good book about why democracies die by some American academics about three or four years ago now. I recommend it. And they pointed out that Latin America, across Latin America, they just copied the American institutions. They said, look, what's working in the Americas is North America. It's United States, they've got it right. Let's copy their institutions, we'll put them into my country, be it Venezuela, Brazil, Argentina, whoever. And then they discovered that actually if the human capital is not as advanced, people will undermine the institutions. And you arguably saw Trump try it in the United States itself, but the human capital and the rest of the place was good enough to stop him from going too far.This is all debatable stuff, but you know, this is... So, I think the institutions do work when everything else has been working for some time and before then it's very hard to argue that the institutions work or can make a huge difference. I think the fundamental economic reality of are you growing at 1% a year or three to 5% a year per capita? That isn't about the institutions. Having said all of that? I think there's no doubt that you can have, if you're lucky, very lucky, really good leadership. A leader like Lee Kuan Yew in Singapore, who has got vision, understands or is lucky, but he prioritized education and all the rest, who gets it right and takes the country onto a new path. When I think of some of the most obvious successes, a lot of them are small Singapore, Hong Kong, even Taiwan really.And maybe it's just tougher to do it in a country the size of Nigeria with over 200 million people or, or uh, India with over a billion, which is why it took India so long or Brazil. But I remember even the French president, Charles de Gaulle, I think in the sixties or seventies said, "how is it possible to govern a country with 350 types of cheese?".Um, and in India you'd say, "how can you govern a country of over a billion people with that many different dialects, different customs, different local cultures?" Um, and it is hard, but once you get these fundamentals of education, electricity and fertility right, suddenly, it looks like you can govern well. So, I want to think there is a role for good leadership, um, and it can make a difference and it does help. I just think history's telling us over the last 300 years that we can't count on luck and that lucky guy who happens to be the right leader to come in, sometimes woman who can come in, and push reform in the right way. What we can count on is that if you get the education, electricity and fertility numbers right, you will get out of poverty, you will get better off and your kids will have a much, much better future and your grandchildren even more so.So, I think that's probably one area [where] my book differs from many in the last 10, 15 years is saying, "I don't think it is so much about the things that we all like to pay attention to [like] who's going to win the next election and what are their different policies going to be?" And you know, most of the time I'm arguing it doesn't really make as much difference as we'd like to think.Tobi;Now, another point that came in the later chapters in the book, which I found interesting, and which is quite also a bit of a political issue right now, surrounds migration. Uh, a lot of Nigerians are leaving, I mean it's become even a social media trend and meme - "who is...Charlie;The Japa trend.Tobi;Who is leaving next, uh, yeah, yeah, Japa. So, like, who is leaving next, you know? Right. But you argued in the book that as countries grow richer, there will be more migration not less because what you often hear is that the reason why people are living is because the country is so bad and they're looking for a way to make better lives for themselves, which is true anyway. So, and that the way to really stop this migration wave is if you can improve the domestic economy and then suddenly you see a drop, but you are saying no, um, we are actually going to see more migration as countries grow richer. Now, how do you suppose that this can be resolved with the current, should I say, political environment in Europe and to some extent in America that is increasingly seeing migration from poorer countries as a problem, right? Is it a case of as countries grow richer, then the migration demographic just, sort of, changes to more educated people leaving and less tension and political rancour about migration?Charlie;Um, I doubt, I mean, I doubt that these political problems about immigration in Europe and The States are going to disappear. Cause we've seen election results just in the last two, three weeks in Italy with the far right becoming dominant, in Sweden as well. Where they took in a huge amount of, I think, it was Syrian refugees and before that Somalian refugees. Um, and you're trying to integrate people coming from a country with very low adult literacy into, particularly in Somalia's case, into a country like Sweden, which had a hundred percent, nearly a hundred percent adult literacy already by 1900. That's an integration process that takes generations. As America's still struggling 150 years after civil war, still struggling to manage integration. So, I think that political problem is going to carry on, but it is going to get more acute for Europe, um, and eventually United States because Europe is this aging old continent that hasn't got enough people.I was in Germany two weeks ago and there, there was a surprising number of industrialists saying "we must have a much more open border situation." I said, well, you know, that'll be really interesting to see if you do that because the backlash that we're seeing elsewhere says there is a limit to what countries politics seem ready to accept. And, I think, I even think the Brexit vote was about that. It was about the East European migration into the UK, which had the most open approach to east European countries from Poland and Hungary and Czech coming to the UK. Every other country in Europe kept in a border, well, restrictions, but the UK didn't. And I think that backfired on the UK when it had a Brexit vote that said, "oh, we have too many Polish people eating sausage in our supermarkets. And I, I, yeah, I mean really people cared.I don't understand it. I love the variety obviously, but while I don't understand, while I don't feel the same, [some] people do. So, I think that's the political problem. And even educated people who are needed by the economy might find it hard to integrate, say, beyond the bigger urban centres. I was really shocked when I was writing the book and I was looking at what happens when you've got an educated population but a high fertility rate. What happens across history is people leave. Cause there aren't enough jobs at home. Cause the fertility rate's so high, there's thousands, millions of people coming into the workforce. The savings aren't there to help create the jobs. So, they leave and it's the Philippines, you know, in the 20th century, it's Pakistanis now, where a number of people are well educated, not everyone sadly. But 150 years ago, it was Ireland, and it was Norway, and they were sending their excess population to America, and it caused huge controversy.There was, you know, rioting between, kind of, the Italian immigrants and the Irish immigrants in New York. T

Hardly a day goes by without a story on cryptocurrencies or the blockchain. This time, the Nigerian Stock Exchange plans to adopt blockchain technology to settle transactions. Temi Popoola, CEO of the Nigerian Exchange, believes that this development will encourage more young people who are major adopters of cryptocurrencies to use the NSE. However, Oluwanifemi and Chimgozirim argue that the technology used for settlement is not responsible for the low patronage among the younger audience. Following that, we discussed Kenya’s plan to regulate “tech practitioners” in the country following a bill passed by the parliament. 5:32 - A blockchain-powered stock exchange 20:07 - Regulating tech practitioners in Kenya Useful links Why should Nigeria’s next president come from the South? Facts and figures Nigeria’s blockchain-powered stock exchange Kenya’s controversial “ICT Practitioners Bill” is closer to becoming law This episode was produced by Ogheneruemu Oneyibo and edited by Múyìwá Mátùlúkò Email us your feedback at podcast@techpoint.africa. Visit www.techpoint.africa for more stories.

Brand new Season 3 PRESENTS 'Finding your inner gift' with Creative writer and author Abimbola Alaka!

"The confusion for us was -- Every time we ran trainings, people would say to us, "This is the best thing we have ever experienced in our lives." We were that good; we just felt the world needs to hear us, but we were not getting jobs with the world." - Bankole Williams, Founder & Principal Consultant, LYD Consulting; Founder, Live Your Dreams Africa Foundation.   On this episode, the concluding part of our chat with Bankole Williams, we explore Bankole, in pursuit of his dream, leaving Guaranty Trust Bank to start his consulting career at Visible Impact, moving on from there to start Edgeecution with Steve Harris, and then, moving on to birth LYD Consulting. We also talk about his lessons, challenges, habits and practices. Today, Bankole Williams is a Management Consultant, Peak Performance Expert, Author, Speaker, Therapist, and Entrepreneur. He is the Founder & Principal Consultant at LYD Consulting, and has delivered consulting interventions for banks and different organizations including The Nigerian Communication Commission (NCC), the World Bank, Guaranty Trust Bank (now GTCO), Access Bank, Diamond (now Access Diamond) Bank, Skye (now Polaris) Bank, Union Bank, Heritage Bank, Stanbic IBTC Bank, First Bank, Fidelity Bank, Oando, NLNG, Google, UTC, and the Nigerian Stock Exchange.  Bankole Williams is also a Social Reformer with a goal to solve the problems of unemployment and underemployment through his foundation – Live Your Dreams Africa Foundation. He is often regarded as the mind surgeon. #BankoleWilliams #LYDConsulting #LiveYourDreamsAfrica #OriginsAfrica #OriginsAfricaPodcast   *** 1-2-1 Newsletter by Origins Africa Catch our 1-2-1 Newsletter where we share with you 1 Lesson, 2 Quotes, and 1 Question from each new episode published. You can check it out and subscribe here: originsafrica.substack.com   Follow Origins Africa Podcast: Twitter: twitter.com/originsaf Instagram: instagram.com/originsaf YouTube: youtube.com/originsafricapodcast

"Desire is such a powerful thing. At the point when I started, I wasn't a great speaker. I wasn't; I just desired it. All that time I heard Fela and all that, I was a very quiet person. But something on the inside of me always got excited when I heard people speak and speak well. I believe that desire is a seed of greatness. It is an indicator of what the future holds, of possibilities." - Bankole Williams, Founder & Principal Consultant, LYD Consulting; Founder, Live Your Dreams Africa Foundation.   Bankole Williams was not always a great speaker. In fact, he was a very quiet person. On this episode, the first of a two-part conversation, you will hear Bankole talk about his early childhood fascinations and the light bulb moments that shaped who he's become today, including his encounter with Fela Durotoye and Steve Harris. He will talk about leaving the rap music group that later evolved into Rooftop MCs, starting his career in Guaranty Trust Bank, and his early embarrassing moments as a speaker. Finally, Bankole will talk about the events that led him to laying himself off in the middle of the worst economic recession the banking sector has faced, in pursuit of his management consulting and speaking dreams. Today, Bankole Williams is a Management Consultant, Peak Performance Expert, Author, Speaker, Therapist, and Entrepreneur. He is the Founder & Principal Consultant at LYD Consulting, and has delivered consulting interventions for banks and different organizations including The Nigerian Communication Commission (NCC), the World Bank, Guaranty Trust Bank (now GTCO), Access Bank, Diamond (now Access Diamond) Bank, Skye (now Polaris) Bank, Union Bank, Heritage Bank, Stanbic IBTC Bank, First Bank, Fidelity Bank, Oando, NLNG, Google, UTC, and the Nigerian Stock Exchange.  Bankole Williams is also a Social Reformer with a goal to solve the problems of unemployment and underemployment through his foundation – Live Your Dreams Africa Foundation. #BankoleWilliams #LYDConsulting #LiveYourDreamsAfrica #OriginsAfrica #OriginsAfricaPodcast   *** 1-2-1 Newsletter by Origins Africa Catch our 1-2-1 Newsletter where we share with you 1 Lesson, 2 Quotes, and 1 Question from each new episode published. You can check it out and subscribe here: originsafrica.substack.com   Follow Origins Africa Podcast: Twitter: twitter.com/originsaf Instagram: instagram.com/originsaf YouTube: youtube.com/originsafricapodcast

As the COVID-19 pandemic continues to batter economies worldwide, people around the world are reassessing the state of affairs and their country's wellbeing. In November 2021, Mr. Abimbola Ogunbanjo,  the head of Nigerian Exchange Group (NGX), hosted the first annual NGX Capital Markets Conference that brought together leading policymakers, financial experts, business leaders, investors, international development partners, and regulators to brainstorm ways to elevate the capital markets in Nigeria.  Specifically, the conference explored ways to increase the collaboration among key players in the nation's economy in order to drive productive investments that would accelerate an elevated and digitized capital market. This episode features Mr. Abimbola Ogunbanjo,  Chairman of the Nigerian Exchange Group, formerly the Nigerian Stock Exchange.  Abi, as his friends call him, discusses the opportunities and challenges for business and government in Nigeria, including the growth industries in Nigeria going into the future.   Abi recently engineered and oversaw the transition of the 60-year-old Nigerian Stock Exchange into what it is today with the goal of making, access to market easier.  As a demutualized entity, NGX, Mr. Ogunbanjo said is looking to: accelerate new growth platforms. invest in new payment platforms. invest in central counterparts, declaring houses. NXE just launched a company called NG Clearing, which is a clearinghouse for derivatives.  "There are a number of areas that we're looking to strengthen our core in data and analytics and technology services, and to form strategic partnerships with fintechs."According to Abi Ogunbanjo, the conference is "the beginning of the dialogue that the exchange is having with its stakeholders because we believe that it requires a collective effort to improve the fortunes of the exchange on the economy." 

The Nigerian Stock Exchange recently completed its demutualization exercise and has morphed into the Nigerian Exchange Group (NGX). Alongside this successful repositioning are its efforts to grow Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) by providing them access to capital and impactful tips on corporate governance, financial and technological innovations that will keep them ahead of the curve.

The Nigerian Stock Exchange recently completed its demutualization exercise and has morphed into the Nigerian Exchange Group (NGX). Alongside this successful repositioning are its efforts to grow Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) by providing them access to capital and impactful tips on corporate governance, financial and technological innovations that will keep them ahead of the curve.

thoughts on raising the participation of small cap firm listing on the Nigerian Stock Exchange

Access Bank Plc on Monday announced the completion of the acquisition of Transnational Bank (Kenya) Plc.The bank, in a notice to the investing public and the Nigerian Stock Exchange, noted that the acquisition followed the receipt of full regulatory approvals and fulfillment of all condition’s precedent to completion.The bank’s Group Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer, Mr Herbert Wigwe, while commenting on the acquisition expressed excitement at the successful entry into the vibrant Kenyan market.The discussion, according to a notice obtained from the NSE is regarding a potential transaction between Access Bank Zambia and Cavmont Bank Limited, a wholly owned subsidiary of Cavmont Capital.The notice explained that the potential transaction was related to the sale of 100 per cent of Cavmont Capital’s interest in Cavmont Bank to Access Bank Zambia.Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcorp Hotels Plc has submitted an application to the Nigerian Stock Exchange for the approval and listing of a rights issue of 2.66 billion ordinary shares.In a notice to its shareholders obtained from the Nigerian Stock Exchange, the company said it would be offering by way of rights 2,659,574,468 ordinary shares of 50 kobo each at N3.76 per share, on the basis of seven new ordinary shares for every 20 ordinary shares held.It said this is pursuant to the approval received from the company’s shareholders at the Extra-Ordinary General Meeting held on June 29, 2020.The Chairman of Transcorp Hotels Plc, Mr Emmanuel Nnorom, said the approval and endorsement of shareholders empowers the board and management to look to the future with confidence despite the current harsh operating environment.Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

ETranzact International Plc’s rights issue of 4.67 billion ordinary shares of N0.50 each, at N1.50 per share on the basis of 10 new ordinary shares for every nine ordinary shares held as at March 25, 2020, has opened for subscription.According to a statement signed by the Head, Listings Regulation Department, Nigerian Stock Exchange, Godstime Iwenekhai, the acceptance list opened on July 14, 2020 and closes August 10, 2020.eTranzact International posted a loss after tax of N182.53m for the first quarter ended March 31, 2020 as against a profit after tax of N90.76m in 2019.According to the audited report obtained from the NSE, the firm posted revenue of N5.915bn in 2020 as against N5.59bn in 2019, representing a growth of 5.81 per cent.Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Equities at the Nigerian Stock Exchange ended on a negative note on Monday as the benchmark index fell 0.91 percent. After 4,808 deals, the All Share Index closed at 24,954.25 points, compared to 25,182,67 points recorded on Thursday. Market capitalisation closed at 13.017 trillion naira as investors exchanged 237 million shares valued at 1.609 billion naira. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Nigerian Stock Exchange in collaboration with the International Finance Corporation has launched the Nigeria2Equal Programme with an inaugural seminar. The virtual seminar, themed, Gender Implications of COVID-19: Supporting Women as Employees in the New Normal’, highlighted the socioeconomic impact the coronavirus on men and women, with women predicted to face more negative impact. The Head, Shared Services Division at the NSE, Bola Adeeko, while addressing concerns around women at home and in the workplace during this crisis, said, the COVID-19 pandemic has brought about unprecedented changes in many lives and businesses. She said there is the valid concern that the current economic challenges will exacerbate gender inequality, especially because women are inappropriately represented in the informal sector and they are equally underrepresented in more senior levels of management in the corporate world. --- This episode is sponsored by · Afrolit Podcast: Hosted by Ekua PM, Afrolit shares the stories of multi-faceted Africans one episode at a time. https://open.spotify.com/show/2nJxiiYRyfMQlDEXXpzlZS?si=mmgODX3NQ-yfQvR0JRH-WA Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/newscast-africa/support

FBNQuest Merchant Bank, the investment banking and asset management subsidiary of FBN Holdings Plc, says it is listing FBNQ MB Funding SPV PLC Series 1 bond out of the N50bn bond issuance programme. The merchant bank said in a statement that it coordinated the principal activities of the transaction, ranging from the structuring, arranging and issuing the Series 1 Bond out of the bond issuance programme launched in November 2018. The organisation advised on the transaction structure and marketing strategy for the bonds including investor engagements. It stated that the bonds were successfully distributed to a diversified mix of investors which included Pension Fund Administrators, insurance companies, asset managers, HNIs and others. The Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer, Kayode Akinkugbe, stated, they are pleased to announce the listing of the FBNQuest MB Funding SPV Plc bond on the Nigerian Stock Exchange. --- This episode is sponsored by · Afrolit Podcast: Hosted by Ekua PM, Afrolit shares the stories of multi-faceted Africans one episode at a time. https://open.spotify.com/show/2nJxiiYRyfMQlDEXXpzlZS?si=mmgODX3NQ-yfQvR0JRH-WA Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/newscast-africa/support

The main index of the Nigerian Stock Exchange ended on a positive note for the 8th consecutive day, rising above 24,000 points for the first time since March. After 7,384 deals, the All Share Index closed at 24,143.37 points, 1.40 percent higher than the 23,809.31 points recorded on Tuesday. Market capitalisation stood at 12.582 trillion naira as investors exchanged 426 million shares. NIGERIA BREWERIES led the gainers with an increase of 3 naira to close with 33 naira per share while CAP advanced by 2 naira to close with 22 naira 90 kobo per share. Conversely, CILEASING lose 30 kobo to close with 4 naira 70 kobo per share. --- This episode is sponsored by · Afrolit Podcast: Hosted by Ekua PM, Afrolit shares the stories of multi-faceted Africans one episode at a time. https://open.spotify.com/show/2nJxiiYRyfMQlDEXXpzlZS?si=mmgODX3NQ-yfQvR0JRH-WA Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/newscast-africa/support

Activities on the Nigerian Stock Exchange on Thursday closed southwards, extending previous negative sentiment to three consecutive trading sessions, following sell-off recorded by some stocks. However, the market breadth closed positive, recording 17 gainers against 15 losers. Consequently, the All-Share Index dipped 5.74 basis points or 1.36 per cent to close at 22,470.79 index points as against 22,780.30 recorded the previous day while market capitalisation of equities depreciated by N162bn from N11.872tn the previous day to N11.710tn as market sentiment remained on the negative territory. --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/newscast-africa/support Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Nigerian Stock Exchange on Wednesday maintained its uptrend of gains, extending positive sentiment to five consecutive trading sessions, with a gain of N343.96bn. The market breadth closed on a positive note, recording 28 gainers as against 11 losers. Consequently, the All-Share Index grew by 659.99 basis points or 3.02 per cent from 21,879.95 index points the previous day to 22,539.94 while the market capitalisation of equities appreciated by N344bn to close at N11.746tn from N11.402tn. Banking subsector boosted by the activities in the shares of GTBank Plc and Fidelity Bank Plc followed with 65.17 million units traded in 910 deals. In all, investors exchanged a total of 326.44 million shares exchanged in 5,166 deals. --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/newscast-africa/support Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Nigerian Stock Exchange has granted listed companies a 60-day grace period for the submission of their audited financial statements for the year ended December 31, 2019, which are due on Monday, March 30, 2020. This follows the outbreak of the coronavirus and as part of the measures taken at the Exchange to reduce its business and economic impact on the activities of quoted companies and the dealing members firms. The NSE further said in the circular that the Exchange understands that some of the internal governance, auditing and other procedures and processes of listed companies may have been disrupted by COVID-19.  During this period, there will be no sanctions for companies that are unable to file the AFS --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/newscast-africa/support Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Fidelity Bank Plc has recorded gross earnings of 215.5 billion naira for the financial year ended December 31, 2019, indicating an increase of 14 per cent. The bank’s audited result released by the Nigerian Stock Exchange showed that gross earnings was up, compared with 189 billion naira achieved in 2018. Profit before tax rose by 21 per cent to 30.4 billion naira, compared with 25.1 billion naira recorded in the previous year. Similarly, net profits rose 24 per cent to 24.4 billion naira, from 22.9 billion naira in the corresponding period. --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/newscast-africa/support Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The benchmark index of the Nigerian Stock Exchange has rebounded on Tuesday as the local bourse prepares to close its trading floors on Wednesday as part of efforts to curb the spread of covid-19. The local bourse, in a statement on Monday, said it will resort to remote trading during from Wednesday, March 25. After 4,561 deals, the All Share Index advanced by 0.19 percent to close at 21,741.16 points as investors exchanged 330.101 million shares. Market capitalisation stood at 11.329 trillion naira as STANBIC, CAP and ZENITH led the gainers. --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/newscast-africa/support Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Trading at the Nigerian Stock Exchange ended on a negative note on Monday, over-turning marginal gains recorded on Friday. After 6,981 deals, the All Share Index closed 0.12 percent lower at 22,705.19 points, compared to 22,733.35 points recorded on Friday. Market capitalisation was at 11.832 trillion naira as investors exchanged 551 million shares worth 5.75 billion naira. JULIUS BERGER led the gainers after adding 1 naira 95 kobo to its initial share price to close at 22 naira 15 kobo. ZENITH BANK's shares advanced by 90 kobo to close with 12 naira 80kobo. Conversely, WAPCO lost 65 kobo to close with 10 naira per share while DANGOTE SUGAR was 30 kobo lower to close at 9 naira 85 kobo per share. --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/newscast-africa/support Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

International Breweries Plc has recorded 100 percent subscription in its recently concluded Rights Issue. The company raised N165 billion on the sale of 18.3 billion units of ordinary shares of 50 kobo each at N9.00 per share offered to existing shareholders through a Rights Issue in December 2019. The additional shares were offered on the basis of 17 new ordinary shares for every eight ordinary shares held as at November 6, 2019. Speaking when the Board and Management team of the company paid a courtesy visit on the Nigerian Stock Exchange, NSE, the new Finance Director, Mr. Bruno Zambrano, said the offer closed in December and was 100 percent subscribed. The Rights Issue is the largest equity issuance ever in the Nigerian capital market. The additional shares were listed on the NSE on Friday, February 7, 2020.” As part of the visit, there was an interactive session with the Council Members of the Exchange, led by Mr. Oscar Onyema, the CEO of the Nigerian Stock Exchange, who commended the visitors, and informed them that the Exchange was engaging government on the need for listed companies such as IB Plc to be allowed tax breaks as an incentive to promote growth and productivity. --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/newscast-africa/support Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Board of Directors of Nigerian Breweries Plc has announced the company’s results for the 2019 financial year with a dividend recommendation of N16.07 billion for approval by its shareholders at the forthcoming Annual General Meeting scheduled for April 22nd 2020. The recommendation is coming on the heels of the N16.1 billion Profit after Tax recorded by the company in 2019, signifying a 100% earnings-payout ratio. The N16.07 billion amounts to a total dividend of N 2.01 (Two Naira and One Kobo) per share for the 2019 operating year and was part of the company’s filing to the Nigerian Stock Exchange on Thursday, 13th of February 2020. The recommended dividend is inclusive of interim dividend of N 3.9 billion, that is 50 Kobo earlier paid by the company. Subject to approval and the deduction of withholding tax at the appropriate rate, the final dividend of N12.07 billion that is, N1.51 per share will be payable on the 23rd of April, 2020 to all shareholders whose names appear on the Company’s Register of Members at the close of business on the 4th of March, 2020. --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/newscast-africa/support Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Nigerian Stock Exchange plans to appoint board. The Johannesburg Stock Exchange had its best day in a week. Zambia’s will grow by more than 3% in 2020.

South Africa’s Stock exchange closes firmer. Kenya's Nairobi Securities Exchange (NSE) expects the removal of a cap on commercial lending rates to spur stocks trading. Nigerian Stock Exchange ends the day in the green

The Nigerian Stock Exchange (“NSE” or “The Exchange”) is pleased to announce that it has received the “Best Corporate Social Responsibility Initiative (Promoting Sustainability & Reporting)” and the “Capital Market In-House Team of the Year” awards at 2019 Marketing World Awards and ESQ Nigerian Legal Awards respectively. NSE emerged the winner of the “Best Corporate Social Responsibility Initiative award (Promoting Sustainability & Reporting)” at the 9 edition of the Marketing World Award held on Friday, November 8, 2019, in Ghana. This award is in recognition of the remarkable initiatives implemented by NSE to advance sustainability reporting in Nigeria. During the event, NSE Head of Corporate Communications department, Olumide Orojimi was also named “Corporate Communications Professional of The Year”. Similarly, the ESQ Nigerian Legal Awards, on Friday, November 1, 2019, named NSE Legal Services Department the “Capital Market In-House Team of the Year”, for driving several innovative ideas and playing major roles in key projects of The Exchange and the Nigerian capital market at large. Commenting on the awards, Mr. Bola Adeeko, Head, Shared Services Division, NSE, stated that, “we are most honored to receive both awards. This achievement is a testament to the efficiency of our service offering and commitment to excellence. It is also a testament to our commitment to creating a sustainable future through our Corporate Sustainability and Responsibility (CSR) activities. These awards serve as recognition for the assiduous efforts of our employees to achieve our aspiration to provide investors and businesses with a reliable, efficient and adaptable exchange hub in Africa, to save and to access capital”. --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/newscast-africa/support Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Stocks to watch comprises the top gainers and losers from the previous week, as well as companies that are expected to have corporate actions. Guinness Nigeria Plc Guinness Nigeria tops this week’s watchlist, as the company will be holding a conference call on the 29th of August. This could be an indication that the firm would be releasing its full year results within the week. Access Bank Plc Access Bank takes the second place in this week’s watchlist, as the lender should be releasing its H1 2019 results anytime from now. Investors would be looking forward to the release of the results, as the bank has a tradition of paying interim dividends. Fidelity Bank Plc Fidelity Bank Plc takes the third place in this week’s watchlist, as the bank had stated that it would release its H1 2019 results on or before the 29th of August. UBA  Plc Last week, UBA forwarded its H1 2019 results to the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN). The results could thus be released any moment from now, hence its place on this week’s watchlist. Investors would keep an eye on the stock, as the bank has a tradition of paying interim dividends. Ecobank Trans International Ecobank Trans International was the best performing stock last week, hence its having a place in this week’s watchlist. The stock gained 33.33%, and could witness short term investors cashing in on profits, depending on how the market performs. --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/newscast-africa/support Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

 Super Eagles legend, Kanu Nwankwo gets political appointment in Imo state ; Gokada temporarily suspends operations; In view of NAICOM’s recapitalisation deadline, Consolidated Hallmark plans N3.9 billion capital raise; Governor Fayemi pays a visit to the Nigerian Stock Exchange; London Stock Exchange experiences delay in opening. --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/newscast-africa/support Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Nigerian Stock Exchange in its recent spree of appointments of Brand ambassadors, on tuesday announced the appointment Tuface Idibia as an ambassador. The exchange also reiterated its commitment to promoting ethical business practices of all  corporate. As the NSE ambassador, Tuface is expected to lend his voice to raising awareness and mobilizing support for the Corporate Social Responsibility and Sustainability initiatives of The Nigerian Stock Exchange geared toward achieving the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) in Nigeria.  --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/newscast-africa/support Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In Episode #336, recorded live at the 71st CFA Institute Annual Conference in Hong Kong, Oscar N. Onyema, chief executive officer of the Nigerian Stock Exchange and member of the National Council, makes the case for why now is an opportune time to invest in Nigeria, despite ongoing challenges.

In 2017, The Nigerian Stock Exchange emerged as the world's 3rd best-performing stock market following the 43% year-to-date return recorded by the All Share Index during the year. The Stock Exchange on the 9th January 2018 maintained its impressive performance as the All Share Index rose above the 40,000 mark for the first time in three years, Specifically, the Index rose to 40,362.97 points yesterday from 39,849.65 points on Monday, the highest since October 2014. Market capitalization which opened at N14.181 trillion inched by N182 billion to close at N14.363 trillion. The volume of shares transacted rose by 27.52%, with 770.89 million shares valued at N7.89 billion traded in 7,395 deals as against the 604.53 million shares worth N16.17 billion exchanged in 5,769 deals previously. --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/africanperspective/support

In 2017, The Nigerian Stock Exchange emerged as the world's 3rd best-performing stock market following the 43% year-to-date return recorded by the All Share Index during the year. The Stock Exchange on the 9th January 2018 maintained its impressive performance as the All Share Index rose above the 40,000 mark for the first time in three years, Specifically, the Index rose to 40,362.97 points yesterday from 39,849.65 points on Monday, the highest since October 2014. Market capitalization which opened at N14.181 trillion inched by N182 billion to close at N14.363 trillion. The volume of shares transacted rose by 27.52%, with 770.89 million shares valued at N7.89 billion traded in 7,395 deals as against the 604.53 million shares worth N16.17 billion exchanged in 5,769 deals previously. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/africabusinessnews/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/africabusinessnews/support

In 2017, The Nigerian Stock Exchange emerged as the world's 3rd best-performing stock market following the 43% year-to-date return recorded by the All Share Index during the year. The Stock Exchange on the 9th January 2018 maintained its impressive performance as the All Share Index rose above the 40,000 mark for the first time in three years, Specifically, the Index rose to 40,362.97 points yesterday from 39,849.65 points on Monday, the highest since October 2014. Market capitalization which opened at N14.181 trillion inched by N182 billion to close at N14.363 trillion. The volume of shares transacted rose by 27.52%, with 770.89 million shares valued at N7.89 billion traded in 7,395 deals as against the 604.53 million shares worth N16.17 billion exchanged in 5,769 deals previously. --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app

Nigerian Equities market closed on monday on a positive note, as NSEASI appreciated by +2.38% to close at 39,849.65 basis points as against +0.64% appreciation recorded previously. The Bond market traded on a relatively quiet note, with slight sell at the close of market offsetting some initial buy interests on the long end of the curve. Average bond yields consequently inched up by 3bps to 13.57%. Stanbic IBTC Stockbrokers Limited led the top 10 stockbrokers on the Nigerian bourse for the year ended December 29, 2017. The appointments of Mr. Balogun and James Ilori to the Board of Legacy Pension Managers (“Legacy Pensions”) come in the wake of the acquisition by FCMB Group of 60 percent of the company, raising its interest to 88%. The Nigerian equity market set off the New Year on a laudable note as most indicators across board closed in the green during the period under review. In line with post-listing requirements of the Nigerian Stock Exchange for quoted companies, Zenith Bank Plc hereby informs you of the scheduled commencement of the closed period for trading in the bank's shares on January 8, 2018, in respect of the Audited Accounts and Financial Statements for the financial year ended December 31, 2017. The Federal Government of Nigeria Savings Bond offer for January opens today the 8th of January 2018 and will remain open for five days until the 12th of January 2018. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/africabusinessnews/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/africabusinessnews/support

Nigerian Equities market closed on monday on a positive note, as NSEASI appreciated by +2.38% to close at 39,849.65 basis points as against +0.64% appreciation recorded previously. The Bond market traded on a relatively quiet note, with slight sell at the close of market offsetting some initial buy interests on the long end of the curve. Average bond yields consequently inched up by 3bps to 13.57%. Stanbic IBTC Stockbrokers Limited led the top 10 stockbrokers on the Nigerian bourse for the year ended December 29, 2017. The appointments of Mr. Balogun and James Ilori to the Board of Legacy Pension Managers (“Legacy Pensions”) come in the wake of the acquisition by FCMB Group of 60 percent of the company, raising its interest to 88%. The Nigerian equity market set off the New Year on a laudable note as most indicators across board closed in the green during the period under review. In line with post-listing requirements of the Nigerian Stock Exchange for quoted companies, Zenith Bank Plc hereby informs you of the scheduled commencement of the closed period for trading in the bank's shares on January 8, 2018, in respect of the Audited Accounts and Financial Statements for the financial year ended December 31, 2017. The Federal Government of Nigeria Savings Bond offer for January opens today the 8th of January 2018 and will remain open for five days until the 12th of January 2018. --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/africanperspective/support

Nigerian Equities market closed on monday on a positive note, as NSEASI appreciated by +2.38% to close at 39,849.65 basis points as against +0.64% appreciation recorded previously. The Bond market traded on a relatively quiet note, with slight sell at the close of market offsetting some initial buy interests on the long end of the curve. Average bond yields consequently inched up by 3bps to 13.57%. Stanbic IBTC Stockbrokers Limited led the top 10 stockbrokers on the Nigerian bourse for the year ended December 29, 2017. The appointments of Mr. Balogun and James Ilori to the Board of Legacy Pension Managers (“Legacy Pensions”) come in the wake of the acquisition by FCMB Group of 60 percent of the company, raising its interest to 88%. The Nigerian equity market set off the New Year on a laudable note as most indicators across board closed in the green during the period under review. In line with post-listing requirements of the Nigerian Stock Exchange for quoted companies, Zenit --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app

The number of indigenous insurance companies acquired by foreign investors will soon rise to 12, findings have revealed. Central Bank of Nigeria special forex window attracts N2.715tn investments... Nigerian Securities and Exchange Commission is Investigating Oando Plc. NSEASI Sustains Uptrend With Marginal Gain; Records +2.47% Gain WoW --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/africabusinessnews/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/africabusinessnews/support

The number of indigenous insurance companies acquired by foreign investors will soon rise to 12, findings have revealed.Central Bank of Nigeria special forex window attracts N2.715tn investments...Nigerian Securities and Exchange Commission is Investigating Oando Plc.NSEASI Sustains Uptrend With Marginal Gain; Records +2.47% Gain WoW--- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/africabusinessnews/messageSupport this podcast: https://anchor.fm/africabusinessnews/support --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/africabusinessnews/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/africabusinessnews/support

The number of indigenous insurance companies acquired by foreign investors will soon rise to 12, findings have revealed. Central Bank of Nigeria special forex window attracts N2.715tn investments... Nigerian Securities and Exchange Commission is Investigating Oando Plc. NSEASI Sustains Uptrend With Marginal Gain; Records +2.47% Gain WoW --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/africanperspective/support

The number of indigenous insurance companies acquired by foreign investors will soon rise to 12, findings have revealed. Central Bank of Nigeria special forex window attracts N2.715tn investments... Nigerian Securities and Exchange Commission is Investigating Oando Plc. NSEASI Sustains Uptrend With Marginal Gain; Records +2.47% Gain WoW --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app

On Friday, June 10th 2016 MTN’s stock price on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange jumped by 20%. This happened in the wake of the news that the firm’s nine-month Nigerian nightmare might finally be coming to an end. MTN has reportedly struck a deal with the Nigerian government, and is set to pay the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) $1.7 billion over three years— significantly less than the $5.2 billion they were initially fined for flouting SIM card registration regulations months ago. While MTN’s shareholders are no doubt breathing a sigh of relief, the company is not out of the woods yet, as according to the NCC, one of the conditions linked to the monetary settlement is the requirement that MTN list its Nigerian subsidiary on the Nigerian Stock Exchange “as soon as is commercially and legally possible”. While the jury’s still out on whether this is the last we’ll hear of this story, one thing is certain, this case sets one heck of a precedent, and that can only bode well for corporate Africa. Also in this week's African Tech Round-up, we feature part of a conversation Andile Masuku had with Charles Murray-- who is a director of the messaging and internet calling app, ttrumpet. Listen in to hear Charles talking about why he reckons ttrumpet isn’t just another mobile app, and sharing some of the pressures and perks of growing a startup that is a subsidiary of relatively successful tech group (Fastcomm) backed by one of the continent’s wealthiest entrepreneurs, Patrice Motsepe. Music Credits: Music by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Music licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0

How many images of Queen Elizabeth II have ever been created? And is Facebook really worth more than twice as much as every company on the Nigerian Stock Exchange?