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Thursday Learning Series - CAPEX

2019-01-23T20:33:00.001-08:00

WHAT IS CAPEX?

Capital expenses or Capital expenditure as some may call it is the money a company spends in acquiring or improving its fixed assets such as land, buildings and equipment.

CAPEX usually will be found listed as PP&E (Property, plant and equipment) in Cash flow statements.

FDI grows in Q2

2018-08-21T02:38:00.000-07:00

According to the report of Nigerian Bureau of Statistics (NBS), Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) rose in Q2.

Total Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) stood at $261.35 million in the second quarter of 2018, growing by 5.97 per cent from the first quarter of the same year, but falling by 4.75 per cent when compared with the corresponding quarter of last year. The increase can be attributed to increased security across the nation.

A foreign direct investment (FDI) is an investment in the form of a controlling ownership in a business in one country by an entity based in another country. Today FDI has become part of the process of international production, by which investors locate in one country to produce a good or a service that is part of a broader global value chain (GVC).

FDI's are powerful engines of economic growth and development. Increased production increases our GDP
"Gross domestic is a monetary measure of the market value of all the final goods and services produced in a period of time." (Wikipedia)

FMNB makes housing more affordable for workers

2018-08-21T02:05:00.002-07:00

The recent launch of the rent-to-own housing scheme with the approval of the board of the Federal Mortgage Bank of Nigeria FMBN, is specifically to make housing more affordable for Nigerian workers who, ordinarily, cannot build or buy homes from their income.

It is also an innovative affordable housing product which provides an easy and convenient payment plan towards home ownership for workers in the country.

Unlike similar schemes promoted by private sector operators which demand higher interest rate for shorter repayment tenor, the FMBN scheme is designed in a way that makes it possible for workers to move into homes built by FMBN as tenants, and commence payment for units which will eventually become their property having completed payment through monthly or yearly rent payments spread over a period of up to 30 years. To further increase affordability, the units will also attract a single digit interest rate of 9 per cent on the price of the property on an annuity basis. The product will cover property with the maximum value of N15 million.

About 3,000 houses are planned for the pilot phase. Payments for the houses will be domiciled with the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, through the Treasury Single Account, TSA. Properties planned for the rent-to-own scheme are existing estates that are funded by FMBN nationwide and non-funded estates.

Why banks don't lend to SME's

2018-08-20T07:39:00.004-07:00

If you are a small business owner, you are probably familiar with the common practice that many banks don't lend to small businesses. But why, especially if small businesses are the engines responsible for economic growth?
I'll attempt to answer this with the following key points. They are;
1. Lack of financial intelligence by small business owners
2. Less profit on small loans
3. Lack of collateral

Lack of financial intelligence
How can these small business owners keep accurate records at all times?- records which assists the bank in making credit decisions. Can they proactively sway business dealings in their favour via an apt knowledge of their business environment? What about their credit worthiness, are they constantly being checked by a credit bureau. These are important questions that require an answer before any decision on lending to SME's is made.

Less profit on small loans
Banks prefer funding large businesses because of the spread they get from them. Regulators have increasingly made it difficult to earn as much as before. The interest rate on SME loans are constantly being reduced to help the business owners. This in no doubt deters the banks from lending to these businesses.

Lack of collateral
Most banks usually require collateral to give out a loan which acts as a guarantee that the loan will be repaid. The amount that the banks will lend often depends on the value of the collateral. This becomes a major challenge for small businesses which may have no valuable asset to offer as collateral.

The question now for both parties is, Can we reach an agreement? That will be answered in subsequent posts.

Banking sector records N32.90trn transactions in Q2 – NBS

2018-08-20T06:22:00.001-07:00

The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) says a total of 509,668,433 transactions valued at N32.90 trillion was recorded in the banking sector during the second quarter.

The NBS stated this in its “Selected Banking Sector Data: Sectorial Breakdown of Credit, ePayment Channels and Staff Strength (Q2 2018)’’ report released in Abuja.

“According to the report, Automated Teller Machine (ATM) transactions dominated the volume of transactions recorded. It said 217,417,961 volume of ATM transactions valued at N1.603 billion was recorded in the period under reveal’’. Customers want to carry out transactions through the fastest possible means and that's why there is an upsurge in ATM usage.

“In terms of credit to private sector, the total value of credit allocated by the banks stood at N15.34 trillion as at the second quarter. “Oil and Gas and Manufacturing sectors got credit allocation of N3.45 trillion and N2.02 trillion respectively to record the highest credit allocation as at the period under review’’. When oil prices hit an all time low of about $30/barrel, banks were sceptical about lending to Oil and Gas sector because they lost a lot of money. Now prices are up to $74/barrel, banks are more confident in the sector, thus improved lending.

“As at the second quarter, the total number of banks staff increased by 13.67per cent, from 89,608 in first quarter to 101,861,” the report stated. (NAN). Lots of banks conducted a graduate trainee program in Q2. Some are currently doing so. The staff strength figures to increase further in Q3.

What is Blockchain? An intro for newbies

2018-08-20T05:57:00.001-07:00

A blockchain is a digital ledger in which transactions made in bitcoin or another cryptocurrency are recorded chronologically and publicly.

This illustration below is a pretty good abstract of the bitcoin blockchain