MEDIA REVIEW FOR WEDNESDAY, MAY 30, 2012
The NASD Limited, Which was has been granted an Approval-in-Principle (AIP) by the
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to operate Over-the-Counter (OTC) market in
Nigeria, is finalizing its trading rules and is targeting the last quarter of this year to
commence operations.
For the first quarter ended March 31, 2012, Forte Oil Plc, formerly African Petroleum Plc, has
recorded 15 .8 per cent increase in profit after tax. According to the result released on the
floor of the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE), profit increased to N304.39 million, compared to
N262.8 million in the same period in the previous year. Forte Oil recently announced plans to
realise profit before tax of N1 billion for the 2012 half-year ending June 2012.
Investors’ renewed demand for the shares of Transnational Corporation of Nigeria (Transcorp)
Plc at the stock market has lifted the price of the equity by 58 per cent so far this year. In
apparent response to the new management of the company and bright prospects, demand for
Transcorp’s shares have been on the increase, lifting the price from N0.57 at the beginning of
the year to N0.90 last Monday.
The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) has said that there is no going back on the
N1.17 billion fine it imposed on four major GSM operators for failure to meet up with the Key
Performance Indicators (KPIs) standard for the month of March and April 2012.
A potential fuel shortage in the country following the suspension of subsidy payments to
importers of petroleum products has been averted as the payment of verified claims to the
affected marketers has started. This followed the suspension of payment of 2011 subsidy
arrears. This is coming as the Federal Ministry of Finance has said that it had spent
N451billion out of the N888 billion budgeted for the payment of subsidy in this year’s
budget, on the payment of arrears for 2011 alone to beneficiaries.
Many have read several meanings into the presidential gesture of re-naming the 50-year old
University of Lagos, after the late Chief Moshood Kashimawo Olwale (MKO) Abiola, fondly
regarded as the June 12 hero and democracy icon, which many believe prefaced the birth of
the nation’s democracy.
Lagos State Governor, Mr. Babatunde Fashola, yesterday said he lacked powers under the law
to overturn the dismissal of the 788 medical doctors recently sacked for allegedly embarking
on illegal strike action. The governor’s clarification on the sacked doctors also came on a day
the state’s chapter of the Nigerian Medical Association (NMA) described as mere propaganda,
the claim by the state government that it had re-instated the sacked doctors.