Category: Business Day

Nigeria’s central bank is turning to a market it locked individuals out of seven years ago as a fresh line of defense against an anticipated wave of election-related spending.

The Central Bank of Nigeria has reversed a 2019 restriction that confined its Open Market Operations bills, which are among the highest-yielding, lowest-risk instruments in the naira market, to banks and select institutional players.

Under the revised framework, individuals, corporates and non-bank financial institutions can now participate in both primary and secondary OMO markets, bidding and settling transactions through Deposit Money Banks.

The reversal is one part of a broader liquidity overhaul. The CBN has also eased restrictions on banks’ access to its Standing Lending Facility, or Discount Window, removing curbs tied to participation in foreign exchange transactions and primary auctions of government securities.

One restriction remains in place: institutions that tap the Discount Window still cannot bid in OMO auctions on the same day.

Ayodele Akinwunmi, chief economist at United Capital Plc, said the latest measures represent an aggressive liquidity management strategy by the CBN ahead of election-related fiscal spending.

He said the CBN’s aggressive liquidity mop-up strategy is timely, particularly ahead of the expected increase in election-related campaign spending and the substantial expansion in broad money supply (M3) observed in the market.

According to him, the approach is preferable to an outright increase in the Monetary Policy Rate (MPR), as it allows the CBN to address excess liquidity more directly while avoiding an unnecessarily broad tightening of monetary conditions.

Akinwunmi said while the liquidity mop-up may initially exert some upward pressure on interbank money-market rates, subsequent moderation in rates is expected to be gradual rather than drastic.

‘This should enable the CBN to maintain effective control of system liquidity and anchor inflation expectations without imposing excessive pressure on economic activity and credit conditions,’ he said.

He added that the latest OMO policy would create an additional outlet for investors in the financial market.

The data illustrates just how much the banking system’s liquidity position has already shifted. Banks’ use of the Standing Lending Facility collapsed to N3.52 trillion in July 2026, down from N65.53 trillion in July 2025 and N75.18 trillion in July 2024, and even below the N11.16 trillion recorded in July 2023. It remains only slightly under the N5.77 trillion posted in July 2022.

The mirror image of that decline shows up in the Standing Deposit Facility, where banks park excess liquidity with the CBN rather than borrow from it. SDF utilization surged to N595.37 trillion in July 2026 from N2.32 trillion in July 2022 – a roughly 257-fold increase – and jumped 646 percent from N79.85 trillion in July 2025 alone. On a single-day basis, deposits rose 49.39 percent to a three-month high of N6.14 trillion on Thursday, up from N4.11 trillion the day before, a level last matched on May 29, 2026, when SDF hit N6.10 trillion.

The reversal in positioning is stark. In July 2024, banks drew N75.18 trillion through the SLF against just N10.35 trillion parked in the SDF. Two years later, the relationship has flipped entirely: N3.52 trillion borrowed versus N595.37 trillion deposited.

The CBN cautioned that the SDF figure reflects utilization over the period rather than a single point-in-time balance, but said the scale of the increase underscores how much more banks are now using the facility to place liquidity with the apex bank rather than draw from it.

A Return to Orthodoxy

Okey Umeano, acting director of the Financial Markets Department, said the changes followed a review of ‘existing market practices and developments in the foreign exchange, money, and fixed-income markets,’ alongside a broader assessment of the frameworks governing the Standing Lending Facility, Tenored Repo Operations and OMO participation.

Ayokunle Olubunmi, head of Financial Institutions Ratings at Agusto and Co., framed the moves as part of a longer arc back toward conventional central banking. ‘This is part of the return to orthodox monetary system,’ he said. ‘Recall that these restrictions were not there before the last FX crisis.’

Alongside the OMO and Discount Window changes, the CBN lifted its suspension of Tenored Repo Operations, restoring the bank’s ability to conduct repos across tenors of four to 90 days, a move it said would support liquidity management, improve money-market functioning and strengthen monetary policy transmission. For banks, tenored repos add a channel for managing liquidity beyond the overnight market and could ease reliance on shorter-term funding.

What Wider Access Could Cost

Analysts at Quest Merchant Bank Limited said the reforms should deepen activity across the money and fixed-income markets and signal growing confidence in FX stability, reserve adequacy and broader market conditions.

The analysts however said broader investor participation could accelerate yield compression over time, potentially trimming treasury income for banks and moderating the carry appeal of naira assets.

The reforms, therefore, mark a broader shift in the CBN’s liquidity-management framework, coming at a time when banks are making far greater use of the deposit facility and considerably less use of the lending window.

BusinessDay’s economists project that Nigeria’s headline inflation will ease to 15.51 percent in July, dropping from the 15.91 percent recorded in June, signifying a moderation of price pressure.

If validated by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), this 0.4 percentage point difference will extend a two month disinflationary trend. The pace of disinflation, however, remains dependent on exchange-rate stability, food supply conditions and global commodity prices.

This forecast was generated using an Autoregressive Integrated Moving Average with Exogenous Variables (ARIMAX) model. The model estimates monthly inflation by combining lagged inflation movements with changes in the official exchange rate, business activity measured by the Stanbic IBTC/S and P Global Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI), the inflation rebasing dummy and an autoregressive component that captures inflation persistence. Business activity is included because stronger demand and improving business conditions often influence firms’ pricing decisions, making the PMI a useful leading indicator of inflation.

The model uses all available information up to June 2026 to estimate July inflation ahead of the NBS’s official release.

The projected moderation reflects improving macroeconomic stability and the fading effects of earlier shocks. Exchange-rate movements have become less disruptive than during the sharp depreciation that followed the foreign exchange reforms of 2023, reducing one of the biggest sources of inflationary pressure.

That assessment is broadly consistent with recent market developments. Ayo Teriba, chief executive officer of Economic Associates, said improved foreign exchange conditions and stronger market liquidity have created a more favourable environment for inflation moderation.

Analysts caution, however, that slower inflation should not be mistaken for low inflation. Nigeria continues to face structural challenges, including weak agricultural productivity, high logistics costs, energy constraints and persistent supply-chain inefficiencies that continue to keep prices elevated.

Muda Yusuf, chief executive officer of the Centre for the Promotion of Private Enterprise (CPPE), said external developments, particularly movements in global energy prices, remain an important risk to Nigeria’s inflation outlook.

‘The recent geopolitical developments put some pressure on energy prices, which filtered into transportation and production costs,’ he said, adding that inflation could still experience marginal movements depending on external conditions.

The July projection also comes at a pivotal moment for monetary policy. The Central Bank of Nigeria has maintained one of the most aggressive tightening cycles in the country’s recent history, keeping the Monetary Policy Rate at elevated levels in an effort to stabilise inflation and support the naira.

A sustained decline in inflation would strengthen the case for a gradual shift towards monetary easing. Policymakers, however, are likely to remain cautious because inflation continues to be driven largely by supply-side constraints rather than excessive domestic demand.

For investors, moderating inflation improves the outlook for real returns on fixed-income assets. With domestic interest rates remaining well above inflation, Nigerian government securities continue to offer relatively attractive real yields compared with many emerging-market peers.

For households and businesses, however, the improvement is likely to be less noticeable. Inflation measures the rate at which prices increase, not the level of prices themselves. Food, transport, housing and energy costs therefore continue to rise even as inflation slows.

The July prediction highlights an important transition in Nigeria’s inflation story. The economy appears to be moving beyond the most acute effects of exchange-rate adjustments and fuel subsidy reforms, but the next phase of disinflation will increasingly depend on structural improvements rather than cyclical factors.

Lower inflation over the long term will require higher agricultural productivity, improved electricity supply, stronger transport and logistics networks, and policies that reduce production costs across the economy.

The Central Bank’s tight monetary stance has likely contributed to moderating inflation by supporting exchange-rate stability and anchoring inflation expectations. Bringing inflation back to single digits, however, will depend less on interest rates than on the economy’s ability to produce, transport and distribute goods more efficiently. Those are reforms monetary policy alone cannot deliver.

Caverton Offshore Support Group Plc has reported half-year results that point to a business finding its footing again, with revenue accelerating through the second quarter and losses narrowing markedly from the first three months of the year.

The Group’s half-year revenue for the six months ended June 30, 2026 came to N14.7 billion. Second-quarter revenue of N8.6 billion was 41 per cent higher than the N6.1 billion recorded in the first quarter, while the quarterly loss narrowed to N3.7 billion from N5.0 billion – an improvement of some N1.2 billion quarter on quarter. The Group closed the half year with a loss of N8.7 billion, with net finance costs of N8.4 billion remaining the principal weight on the bottom line – underscoring why the Group’s debt restructuring programme sits at the centre of its recovery plan.

Beneath the headline loss, the operating picture is firmer. Operating profit before administrative costs reached N7.3 billion, a margin of roughly 50 per cent on revenue, reflecting the disciplined cost management that first showed through in the Group’s first-quarter numbers.

The clearest driver of the recovery is Caverton Marine. Through its relationship with Stena Bulk, one of the world’s leading tanker operators, the Group now participates in three Suezmax tankers trading internationally a rare source of foreign-currency revenue for a Nigerian-listed company. That relationship is being deepened through Unity Shipping Worldwide, a joint venture with the Nigerian National Petroleum Company and Stena Bulk that pairs NNPC’s national position and Stena Bulk’s fleet with Caverton’s indigenous operating platform.

Closer to home, the Group’s OMIBUS platform, developed with Shanghai-based electric-propulsion OEM Explomar, is bringing battery-electric passenger ferries to Lagos waterways. A prototype is already in service and Caverton holds a firm order from Lagos State for ten vessels an early-mover position in clean inland-water transport that the Group believes can be replicated across other states as the fleet enters service and ferry operations mature into steady, recurring revenue.

In aviation, the recovery is anchored on the Group’s partnership with NHV, Belgium based international helicopter operator, with the restructuring of charter operations targeted for the second half of 2026.

In the meantime, Caverton is sweating the assets it already owns, monetising its Maintenance, Repair and Overhaul (MRO) facility and the Caverton Aviation Training Centre (ATC), while its unmanned aerial vehicle business (UAV), developed with the National Agency for Science and Engineering Infrastructure (NASENI), continues to scale from a small base after more than doubling year on year in the first quarter.

Underpinning the plan is a restructured debt profile: the Group has reworked its remaining dollar-denominated bank facilities to improve long-term sustainability and reduce the foreign-exchange exposure that has driven finance costs in recent periods.

Commenting on the performance, Olabode Makanjuola, Group Chief Executive Officer, said: ‘The first half of the year tested us, but the direction of travel is now visible in the numbers. Quarter on quarter, we are working to build up our revenue to narrow losses. Our marine business units, from international tankers to electric ferries, are scaling. Meanwhile our aviation relaunch is on track for the second half, and our cost base is tighter than it has been in years. There is distance still to travel, but Caverton is moving from stabilisation to recovery, and we intend to finish 2026 with that momentum intact.’

‘The Board and management look to the remainder of 2026 with measured confidence as the marine business scales, the aviation restructuring and partnership comes on stream, and the benefits of the restructured balance sheet take hold,’ he added.

President Bola Tinubu met with the leadership of the Nigeria Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers (NUPENG) at the Presidential Villa in Abuja, urging beneficiaries of government compressed natural gas (CNG) conversion projects to lower commuter fares. The President noted that CNG benefits are currently restricted to the pockets of vehicle owners rather than trickling down to the public.

The appeal responds to public outcry that fares charged by CNG beneficiaries match those of petrol vehicles. President Tinubu promised expanded access to conversion projects and confirmed plans to publish reports on the utilisation of fuel subsidy savings. Reflecting on his May 29, 2023, inauguration announcement ending the Premium Motor Spirit (PMS) subsidy, he revealed he proceeded despite strike threats to secure the nation’s financial health.

The President however, promised to do more in the CNG project to ensure that more people have access to the conversion.

‘Equally, the introduction of compressed natural gas. Well, I will appeal to you, we will do more. We will encourage you, but ask your drivers to let it trickle to the commuters too, because whatever benefit that is coming from CNG is going to the pocket of truck owners. It’s not spreading as fast as I would like it, but it should spread.

The President also promised to publish reports on government utilisation of subsidy savings.

The President had on the 29th of May, 2023, during his inauguration announced the removal of subsidy on Premium Motor Spirit PMS, that drained over N20 trillion in two decades

The President speaking at the meeting with NUPENG officials, on Thursday, at the presidential Villa, Abuja, revealed why he did not serve notice before the announcement.

‘ I received threats that if I served noticed; you may go on strike, but I insisted that fuel subsidy will be gone. And today, it is to the benefit of our great country,’ he said. ‘ I will soon publish the utilization of what we received’.

Tinubu said he listened to people; ‘ they say common man and all of that. Who are the people receiving the salaries in the local government administration? Are they not common men and women receiving salaries regularly at the state level, are they not common man and woman? The ordinary people are receiving salaries at the federal government regularly, and it affects all the market women around us, including your wives’.

The President also noted the economy is not a child’s play.

‘It’s a system of financial reengineering and reset that you impress, and I want to thank you for the cooperation and collaboration, the understanding,’ he said.

BusinessDay gathered that the meeting was in furtherance to the President’s recent announced to restructure the Nigeria National Petroleum Company Limited NNPCL to prepare it for listing on the capital market.

It was gathered that the President met the Union whose responsibilities include amongst others, to protect workers’ welfare, negotiates employment terms, and handles industrial relations across the country’s energy industry, to prepare them for the new oil and gas sector.

The Union advocates for junior staff and petroleum tanker drivers across oil majors and service companies.

Just few days ago, the President also approved a landmark reform that replaces project-by-project negotiations with a transparent investment framework designed to unlock up to US$50 billion in deep offshore investment and restart Nigeria’s large, capital-intensive offshore developments that have remained stalled for decades.

The approval also enables NNPC Limited, as the Government’s nominated counterparty under the Production Sharing Contracts, to proceed with the necessary amendments to eligible Production Sharing Contracts required to implement the framework.

The reform establishes a transparent, rules-based investment framework capable of supporting the next generation of deep offshore developments, beginning with the approximately US$10 billion Bonga South West project, while strengthening Nigeria’s competitiveness for globally mobile investment capital.

The President who described the NUPENG as ‘very good partner of government in progress’, stated that the union ‘occupy a very critical nerve of the economy of this country’.

‘ I’m glad you have seen the effect of being able to find funding for long-term projects; Lagos-Ibadan Road, Abuja-Kaduna, Abuja-Kano, and Sokoto-Badagri and the highways and many other road network, it’s all for the good of us and the good of our economy and the safety of our people.’

The President while also speaking on th refineries, assured that ‘ the refineries are going to come back to work,’ adding that ‘ ‘ We’re just building a very firm reset and structural reworking of the economic of it.

‘Ordinary flame and smoke of refinery doesn’t mean that it’s working until it’s profitable and yield the value for which it is built.

‘I’m not a man who go look come back at everything because I’ve accepted the asset and liability of my predecessors, no matter what has happened in the years past, it’s my responsibility now as the president to fix it, make it work, I take responsibility for that, and I’m going to do it’

He appealed to the officials of NUPENG to work together with the government to strengthen democracy, adding that ‘ democracy is about celebration of freedom and opportunity that must be cherished by all of us.

‘It’s not easy to manage a democratic regime, full of twists and turns, hill and valleys, and all of that. But it’s through perseverance, endurance, and good determination that we can bring about a relief of a newborn baby and a pregnancy, you see the joy of life. It is the motherhood is painful, but the joy is everlasting and dumb and I will promise you, you will enjoy better Nigeria’.

Akanni Oladiti, the President of the Nigeria Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers, ( NUPENG, speaking earlier, appealed to President to check casualisation of workers in the oil industry in the country.

The NUPENG leader described the trend as unwholesome, expressing concern that efforts to make the oil companies involved, particularly in the upstream oil and gas sector to shelve the practice have been constantly rebuffed.

He said:’Your Excellency, our relationship with the International Oil Companies and the indigenous players in

the upstream sector has been very cordial. However, we want to seize this opportunity to bring to your attention an unhealthy trend we have been trying to correct with little to no success. It is the

casualisation of workers, particularly in the upstream sector.

‘For a sector that is strategic and taken as the economic jugular of the nation, NUPENG and its counterpart, the PENGASSAN have been tolerating these unwholesome practices, knowing full well

the enormous disruption that any industrial actions could cause to the economy.

‘We also do not want to be seen to be hostile to the Minister of Labour, Muhammad Maigari Dingyadi, who has been very supportive and operates an open-door policy in his relationship with our Union.

‘We have engaged the management of some of the affected companies without results. Mr. President, we urge you to use your good offices to stop casualisation of workers in our sector.’

While commending the present administration for its rehabilitation and dualisation of federal highways which he noted will ease movement of petroleum trucks, Oladiti also appealed to President Tinubu to see to the rescucitation of the Nigerian Pipelines and Storage Company (NPSC) depots across the country.

He maintained that injecting life into the depots would complement the ongoing positive step to revive the ailing refineries.

‘ We’ve seen real progress in the rehabilitation of federal highways, making

journeys safer for our tanker drivers,’ he said.

‘Mr. President, your administration has turned federal highways into massive construction sites. We

must not fail to mention the ongoing, unprecedented projects, 750- kilometer, six lane Lagos – Coastal

Highway and the 1,068- kilometer Sokoto- Badagry Superhighway that will traverse seven states in the

country.

‘For our members, a good road is the difference between arriving home safely and never arriving at

all. Every stretch of highway rehabilitated or constructed, means fewer accidents, fewer spillages,

fewer lives lost, and lesser stress for the men behind the wheel. Mr. President, that is a reform our

members feel in their bones, and for it we say thank you.

‘We also want to commend your administration’s move to revive the Warri and Port Harcourt refineries through partnership with Chinese firms.

‘Your Excellency, we want to humbly request that the same energy and drive to inject life back to the

refineries be extended to the decaying Nigerian Pipelines and Storage Company (NPSC) depots of

country.

‘We strongly recommend they can be handed over to private investors to manage under an equity arrangement.’

The President of NUPENG also urged President Tinubu to promote grassroots development by ensuring that state governors comply with the Supreme Court judgment on financial autonomy of the local governments’.

Nigeria’s mid-tier banking groups are emerging as some of the strongest earnings performers in the first half of 2026, with FCMB Group, Wema Bank, and Sterling Financial Holdings posting double-digit growth in after-tax profit, helping to offset a decline at Ecobank Transnational Incorporated (ETI).

Analysis of the H1 2026 results of the four listed banking groups shows that their combined after-tax profit rose to N730.2 billion, from N636.4 billion in H1 2025, representing an increase of about 14.7 percent.

The earnings expansion was driven primarily by FCMB Group, whose profit surged 90.5 percent to N139.8 billion, Wema Bank, which recorded a 50 percent increase to N131.3 billion, and Sterling Financial Holdings, whose profit rose 20.6 percent to N50.3 billion.

ETI, however, bucked the trend, with profit after tax declining 5.8 percent to N408.8 billion from N433.8 billion a year earlier.

The divergent performance highlights a changing earnings landscape in Nigeria’s banking industry, where stronger loan growth, higher interest income, and diversified revenue streams are supporting smaller lenders, while some larger regional banking groups are facing pressure from weaker non-interest income and higher impairment charges.

Meristem Research’s July banking review shows that the sector entered the second half of the year with improving investor sentiment, with the Nigerian Banking Index rising 22.10 percent month-on-month in July, reversing the profit-taking seen in June.

FCMB leads profit growth

FCMB Group recorded the strongest year-on-year profit expansion among the four banks analysed, with after-tax profit rising from N73.4 billion in H1 2025 to N139.8 billion in H1 2026.

Its gross revenue also climbed from N530 billion to N680 billion, reflecting stronger earnings generation during the period.

Meristem’s banking metrics put FCMB’s H1 2026 gross earnings at N667.26 billion, interest income at N600.52 billion, and non-interest income at N66.74 billion. The group reported N139.86 billion in profit after tax, while loans to customers stood at N2.49 trillion and deposits at N4.92 trillion.

The bank’s H1 performance comes against a broader environment in which lenders are seeking to convert the benefits of higher interest rates and balance-sheet expansion into stronger earnings.

Wema sustains rapid earnings growth

Wema Bank also delivered a strong first-half performance, with after-tax profit increasing from N87.5 billion in H1 2025 to N131.3 billion in H1 2026, a 50 percent rise.

Gross revenue increased from N303 billion to N415 billion, indicating that the lender was able to translate revenue growth into a substantial improvement in bottom-line earnings.

Meristem’s data show Wema generated N415.09 billion in gross earnings, including N342.64 billion in interest income and N72.45 billion in non-interest income. Its impairment charge was just N830 million, while loans to customers reached N2.12 trillion and deposits stood at N3.45 trillion.

The relatively low impairment charge compared with the other banks in the group helped support profitability.

Sterling grows earnings despite rising credit costs

Sterling Financial Holdings increased after-tax profit by 20.6 percent, from N41.7 billion in H1 2025 to N50.3 billion in H1 2026.

Gross revenue rose from N212 billion to N279 billion, representing growth of about 31.6 percent.

Meristem attributed Sterling’s H1 performance largely to stronger core banking income. Gross earnings rose 27.84 percent year-on-year to N279.60 billion, driven by a 33.75 percent increase in interest income to N223.58 billion.

The growth was supported by a 35.87 percent year-to-date increase in loans and advances and an improvement in average asset yield to 7.15 percent from 6.09 percent.

However, the earnings improvement came with rising risks. Net impairment charges increased by 357.48 percent to N23.85 billion, while interest expense rose 23.57 percent to N86.18 billion.

Meristem consequently warned that elevated impairment charges and rising funding costs remain key downside risks to Sterling’s earnings momentum in the second half.

Ecobank buckles under non-interest income pressure

ETI remained the largest profit contributor among the four banks, but was the only one to record a decline in earnings.

Its after-tax profit fell from N433.8 billion in H1 2025 to N408.8 billion in H1 2026, representing a 5.8 percent decline.

Despite the profit contraction, gross revenue was broadly stable, increasing marginally from N2.30 trillion to N2.31 trillion.

Meristem said ETI’s interest income increased 2.32 percent year-on-year to N1.52 trillion, supported by an 18.14 percent increase in interest income from treasury bills.

However, non-interest income declined 5.81 percent to N732.90 billion, with trading income falling 10.42 percent and other operating income dropping 23.74 percent. At the same time, impairment charges increased 24.50 percent.

The result was a decline in profitability metrics, with ETI’s return on equity falling to 17.71 percent from 18.81 percent and return on assets declining to 10.80 percent from 11.99 percent.

Banking stocks rally ahead of earnings

The strong earnings performances of several banks coincided with a sharp recovery in banking stocks on the Nigerian exchange.

According to Meristem, the Nigerian Banking Index gained 22.10 percent in July, supported by strong institutional buying in Tier-1 names and anticipation of H1 2026 results and interim dividend announcements.

First HoldCo was the standout performer, with its share price rising 131.13 percent month-on-month, while Zenith Bank gained 12.22 percent and GTCO rose four percent. FCMB, which had enjoyed a strong June rally, fell 13.91 percent in July as investors took profits.

The rally reflects what Meristem described as a ‘flight to quality’ by domestic institutional investors, who are positioning for earnings growth and dividend opportunities.

Recapitalisation could reshape second-half growth

The banking sector is also entering the second half with the recently completed recapitalisation exercise expected to provide lenders with additional capacity to expand their balance sheets.

Meristem expects banks to deploy fresh capital toward strengthening their capital bases, technology investment, and increased lending to the real sector. It also expects the still-high interest-rate environment to continue supporting bank earnings through the rest of 2026.

‘For investors, however, the H1 results point to a widening performance gap across the sector. While FCMB, Wema and Sterling demonstrated that aggressive balance-sheet growth and core banking income can still drive substantial profit expansion, ETI’s results show the vulnerability of banks with greater exposure to volatile non-interest income and rising impairment costs,’ the report disclosed.

With more Tier-1 banks expected to release their H1 results and dividend qualification dates approaching, Meristem expects banking stocks to remain a major focus of investors in August.

The High Court of Justice of Delta State, sitting in the Asaba Judicial Division, has sentenced Abubakar Mohammed to life imprisonment for defiling a nine-year-old girl in Asaba, Oshimili South Local Government Area of the state.

ýJustice Onome Marshal-Umukoro, who presided over the case, delivered the judgement on Monday, August 10, 2026, in Charge No. DTHC/ASB/CR/26/2025, State v. Abubakar Mohammed.

ýMohammed was prosecuted by the Delta State Ministry of Justice under Sections 3(1)(a) and 4(1) of the Delta State Violence Against Persons Law, 2020.

ýThe prosecution was led by Victoria Ibegbulem, Principal State Counsel in the Sexual Offences Unit of the Ministry of Justice.

ýIn its judgement, the Court held that the prosecution had proved all the essential elements of the offence beyond reasonable doubt.

ýJustice Marshal-Umukoro relied principally on the direct evidence of the victim, which was supported by corroborative medical evidence, in finding the defendant guilty of defilement.

ýIn determining the appropriate sentence, the Court considered the age and vulnerability of the victim, the abuse of trust, the circumstances surrounding the commission of the offence and evidence of a previous abuse allegedly accompanied by threats to the victim’s life.

ýThe Court held that the circumstances of the case warranted a sentence beyond the statutory minimum.

ýConsequently, Mohammed was sentenced to life imprisonment without an option of fine.

ýThe court also ordered that the convict’s name, photograph and other particulars be entered in the Register of Convicted Sex Offenders maintained by the Office of the Attorney-General and Commissioner for Justice, Delta State.

ýThe Court further directed that the register be made accessible to the public.

For decades, beer has occupied a familiar place in Nigeria’s social life.

It has been the drink after work, the companion to a plate of peppered meat, the centrepiece of weekend gatherings and a fixture at concerts, football viewing centres, festivals and celebrations.

But the Nigerian beer drinker is changing.

For a younger generation of consumers, choosing a beer is increasingly less about habit and more about the experience. Taste, occasion, food, atmosphere and company are becoming important considerations, creating a more diverse and competitive market for brewers.

The shift reflects a broader change in Nigerian consumer behaviour. Younger consumers are being exposed to more products and flavours, making them more willing to explore options rather than remain tied to traditional preferences.

A beer enjoyed at a crowded music festival, for instance, may serve a different purpose from one shared over dinner. An after-work gathering may call for something different from a quiet evening with friends.

This is changing the way brands think about the category.

Rather than simply selling beer, brewers are increasingly having to consider the occasions around consumption and how their products fit into consumers’ increasingly varied lifestyles.

From the bottle to the occasion

Nigeria’s drinking culture has always been closely connected to social interaction.

Beer rarely exists in isolation. It is often consumed alongside food, music, sport and conversation, making the experience surrounding the drink almost as important as the drink itself.

Consider the familiar combination of beer and suya, or a cold bottle shared while eating bole at a festival. In these moments, the beer becomes part of a larger social experience.

That connection between food and drinking is particularly important in Nigeria, where social gatherings are often built around meals.

As consumer tastes evolve, this relationship is giving brewers an opportunity to develop products that can fit more occasions.

The result is a beer market in which consumers increasingly expect choice – not necessarily because they have abandoned familiar brands, but because they want products that suit different moments.

A lighter taste for a changing consumer

Tiger is one of the brands responding to this shift.

The brand recently introduced a lighter, smoother and more refreshing taste profile, positioning the change around the evolving preferences of consumers.

The new profile is designed to be more sessionable while retaining the character associated with Tiger.

For the brand, the move reflects an understanding that today’s beer consumer may want a product that is easier to enjoy across a wider range of occasions.

That could include casual gatherings, meals with friends, festivals or relaxed evenings – moments where the drink is expected to complement rather than dominate the experience.

The move also points to a wider trend in consumer markets: younger consumers are increasingly looking for products that fit into their lifestyles rather than asking their lifestyles to fit around products.

The experience economy comes to beer

The evolution of Nigerian drinking culture mirrors changes taking place across consumer markets.

Consumers are increasingly buying experiences as much as products. This is visible in the growth of food festivals, music events, lifestyle gatherings and other social experiences where food and beverages form part of the attraction.

For beer brands, that means competition is no longer limited to taste or price.

Brands must also understand where consumers drink, who they drink with and what they are doing when they reach for a bottle.

A product that works at a football viewing centre may not necessarily be the same choice for a dinner table. A festival crowd may have different expectations from a group of friends relaxing after work.

The ability to appeal across these occasions could therefore become increasingly important as Nigeria’s younger consumers gain more exposure to different products and experiences.

Tradition meets experimentation

The changing market does not necessarily mean Nigerian consumers are abandoning established drinking habits.

Instead, it suggests that tradition and experimentation can coexist.

The familiar social rituals remain – the weekend outing, the shared meal, the football match, the celebration with friends. What is changing is the range of choices available within those moments.

Consumers can remain loyal to familiar brands while still being curious about new taste profiles.

For brewers, that creates both an opportunity and a challenge.

They must preserve the characteristics that consumers associate with established brands while responding to changing expectations around taste, refreshment and versatility.

Tiger’s latest offering is one example of how brands are attempting to navigate that balance.

What comes next

Nigeria’s beer market is likely to become increasingly shaped by the changing preferences of younger consumers.

As they seek more variety and place greater emphasis on experiences, brands will need to understand that the future of beer is not simply about what is inside the bottle.

It is also about where the bottle is opened, what is being eaten, who is around the table and what the occasion represents.

For a generation that is more willing to explore, the question may no longer be simply which beer they drink.

It may be which beer feels right for the moment.

And as those moments continue to change, the taste of Nigerian drinking culture is likely to change with them.

Francis Fadahunsi, Senator representing Osun East Senatorial District, has accused Governor Ademola Adeleke of allegedly using political violence to suppress voters in the district ahead of Saturday’s governorship election.

Fadahunsi made the allegation at a press conference in Osogbo, claiming that Governor Adeleke had allowed violence to spread from Ede into Osun East, which he described as the stronghold of the All Progressives Congress (APC).

According to him, more than 40 people had been killed in Osun East within the last year, while 30 APC members were allegedly killed within the last month.

‘Adeleke created terrorism from Ede into Osun East, the stronghold of APC, for us to be destabilised so that people will not go out en masse to cast their votes,’ he alleged.

The senator cited several incidents in Ijesa land, alleging that four people were killed while 16 others sustained gunshot injuries during the crisis over control of local government administration.

He also referred to the April 2025 violence in Esa-Oke, alleging that four people were killed and 12 others sustained gunshot wounds.

Fadahunsi further alleged that members of the Amotekun Corps killed four of his constituents in Akinlalu, leaving six others critically injured, and 12 APC members were killed within 24 hours in recent attacks.

He said, ‘In the last one year, over 40 people were killed in the district unchecked by either the police or the governor.’

Fadahunsi further said he had led a protest to the palace of Oba Adesuyi Haastrup, the Owa of Ijesaland, to draw attention to what he described as politically motivated killings, urging traditional rulers and security agencies to ensure that voters were not intimidated or prevented from exercising their franchise.

He also dismissed allegations by Adeleke against security agencies and the APC, arguing that the governor’s accusations suggested he was apprehensive about the outcome of the election.

The senator also accused Senator Lere Oyewumi, the Director-General of the Accord Party campaign council, of intervening in a case involving a suspect allegedly linked to the killing of Remi Abass in Irewole.

He urged residents of Osun East to participate in Saturday’s poll and expressed confidence that Oyebamiji, the APC governorship candidate, would win the election.

Nigeria’s job crisis is peculiar to its six geopolitical zones, revealing a deeply fragmented national labour market where blanket, centralized interventions consistently fall short.

In essence, the country does not have a single national jobs crisis; but six fundamentally distinct regional crises that require entirely different policy remedies.

These findings are based on a report by SBM Intelligence titled: Six Zones, One Crisis, following a survey of 1,180 respondents across 21 cities and all six geopolitical zones to evaluate jobs, skills, migration patterns, and the risk of economic flight.

It also reveals that national economic indicators frequently obscure local realities, where over four in ten Nigerian households 45.3 percent suffered a direct economic shock in the past year through job losses, business closures, or persistent unemployment.

This widespread financial instability created an exceptionally mobile workforce: nearly eight in ten respondents (79.1 percent) express a willingness to relocate internally for viable employment, while one in five would leave their current geopolitical zone immediately if given the opportunity.

Here are the peculiar job crises facing each of the country’s six geo-political zones:

South-West

In the South-West, the bottleneck is defined not by lack of basic education or commercial activity, but by structural infrastructure deficits and severely restricted capital access.

Despite Lagos being a major economic hub in the region, small enterprises face prohibitive urban operational costs, high interest rates, and gridlock. Consequently, expanding businesses cannot generate enough high-quality formal jobs to absorb the steady inflow of university graduates, driving many into low-margin informal trades.

South-East

In the South-East, acute household-level economic distress is exacerbated by ongoing security disruptions and depressed wage levels. The region recorded the nation’s highest household shock rate at 66.5 percent, driven by frequent commercial sit-at-homes, market disruptions, and land disputes that throttle supply chains and enterprise operations.

Uncompetitive pay structures in local commercial hubs further prevent young workers from building long-term financial stability, driving widespread economic displacement.

South-South

In the South-South, the defining challenge is an intense brain drain driven by mono-economy stagnation. The zone records the country’s highest desire for internal mobility, with 92.6 percent of residents willing to relocate for better opportunities. Despite hosting petroleum hubs, a lack of industrial diversification leaves highly educated degree holders facing severe underemployment, compelling skilled professionals to seek exit routes toward alternative domestic markets or international migration.

North-East

In the North-East, the crisis overturns traditional assumptions by revealing that structural skills deficits and uncompetitive compensation outweigh insecurity as the primary barrier to employment. Physical reconstruction and regional recovery have created a unique labour demand: the North-East is the only geopolitical zone where demand for construction trade training (29.4 percent) exceeds digital skills acquisition (23.9 percent).

Workers actively seek vocational trade qualifications to participate in local infrastructure rebuilding, but depressed regional wages continue to limit household earning capacity.

North-West

In the North-West, workers remain trapped in a high-deficiency, low-productivity agricultural cycle. The region suffers from the nation’s highest skills deficit at 26.8 percent which prevents smallholder farmers and rural youth from transitioning into modern agribusiness processing or light manufacturing.

Compounded by widespread rural insecurity and banditry that disrupt farming communities, agricultural workers face persistent underemployment without access to modern agrarian technologies or secondary income streams.

North-Central

In the North-Central, while the Federal Capital Territory attracts a concentrated tier of civil service and corporate roles, youths in surrounding states contend with severe credit constraints, agricultural land conflicts, and negligible private-sector absorption.

Outside the immediate capital territory, job seekers face a near-complete absence of formal employment channels, forcing reliance on informal activities.

What each zone should do

The report recommends policies each zone just adopt to that matches the geography.

?For instance, it recommends that the Northwest transition from subsistence to commercial agro-industries, establish mechanisation clusters and dedicated agro-processing zones leveraging established local bases like groundnut, leather, and textiles.

In addition to tackling the zone’s heavy skills deficit, and partner to build a Kano-to-Port Harcourt trade corridor to link northern agricultural output with southern port access.

?Northeast should align vocational programs with what the local market actually demands, construction trades and digital skills, rather than defaulting to generic programs.

Create direct, wage-linked public works programs that offer competitive earnings to counter forced youth migration.

?Shift from blanket territorial security to securing specific agricultural transport routes such as Bauchi-Gombe-Adamawa, to ensure farm-to-market trade survives.

?Northcentral needs to scale digital skills training out of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) into surrounding satellite hubs like Keffi and Suleja, unlock credit and treat the FCT as a distinct city-state economy so that Abuja’s metrics will not mask the agrarian realities and economic distress of neighboring states.

?Southeast needs to address the primary bottleneck by building joint, off-grid industrial power projects such as solar-gas hybrids across Anambra and Abia.

?In addition to creating state-backed first-loss credit facilities to de-risk commercial lending for small manufacturers and informal traders.

?Establish a dedicated industrial cluster agency for the Aba-Nnewi-Onitsha manufacturing belt.

Design policy interventions specifically tailored to OND and NCE holders, who represent the zone’s most flight-prone demographic.

?South-South needs to industrialise aggressively by tapping local gas infrastructure to establish a Port Harcourt-to-Warri manufacturing corridor focused on petrochemicals, refining, and building materials.

?Upgrade and streamline customs efficiency at underutilised maritime hubs in Port Harcourt, Warri, and Calabar.

Build domestic fertiliser and petrochemical plants to create local jobs and reduce national import dependencies

?Directly combat rampant workplace and hiring discrimination, which remains a primary driver of youth disengagement in the zone.

?South-west needs to focus state interventions on fixing roads, energy distribution, and small-business credit bottlenecks rather than basic skills training.

Also ?enforce fair pay by etablishing functional state labour inspectorates to enforce minimum wage compliance and curb youth rejection of low-paying formal work, invest heavily in public healthcare and education payrolls to absorb educated job-seekers.

Also form a unified metropolitan labour and transport body across Lagos, Ogun, and Oyo states to manage the contiguous regional economy seamlessly.

?What the federal government should do

The report recommends that the Federal Government must act as the strategic coordinator binding Nigeria’s six distinct regional economies, shifting away from top-down planning to enable local solutions.

The key federal priorities include funding strategic inter-zonal corridors (Port Harcourt-Aba, Kano-Kaduna-Abuja, Lagos-Ibadan) to drive internal trade, standardising digital training with portable qualifications across polytechnics, and simplifying capital access by consolidating fragmented intervention funds into a commercial bank-led guarantee facility for informal workers.

Additionally, establishing a national vocational framework to ensure trade credentials move seamlessly across state lines, while publishing quarterly, state-level Labour Force surveys to provide critical market data for investors.

To protect and incentivise growth, central security must directly safeguard vital trade routes, a Regional Economic Corridors Fund should match grants for states co-investing in shared infrastructure, and an independent commission must enforce merit-based public hiring to eliminate nepotism.

A Nigerian property technology startup is betting that one of the biggest problems facing hotels and serviced apartments is not attracting guests, but stopping the silent revenue losses that occur behind the scenes.

NestFlow, a bootstrapped startup founded by Jim Okonma and Moses Owhonda, has secured contracts worth N14 million from its first two commercial deployments by helping property owners identify operational gaps that often go unnoticed, from poor customer follow-up and missing inventory to unresolved maintenance issues and weak staff accountability.

The company, which began commercial operations in February 2026, has signed Pearlsend Apartments and Betos Lounge and Apartments as its first customers without raising venture capital or receiving grants, an early validation that some Nigerian property owners are willing to pay for software that gives them greater visibility into how their businesses operate.

While many hotel technology providers focus on bookings and reservations, NestFlow is targeting a less visible but potentially more expensive problem: revenue leakage caused by disconnected business processes.

‘A property owner can have people handling every part of their business but still not have a complete view of what is really going on. That is where we saw the opportunity because every property owner needs information that connects their entire operation,’ said Moses Owhonda, NestFlow’s technical co-founder and chief technology officer.

For many hotels and serviced apartments across Nigeria, day-to-day operations are spread across multiple disconnected systems. Reservations may be managed with one application, accounting with another, customer enquiries through WhatsApp, while inventory and maintenance records are still kept manually.

The fragmented approach creates blind spots that can quietly erode profits. Potential guests may enquire about rooms but never receive a follow-up. Damaged televisions or missing appliances may only be discovered long after guests have checked out. Maintenance requests can disappear without confirmation that repairs were completed, while absentee owners often rely entirely on staff reports without independent records to verify events.

NestFlow believes these operational gaps represent a growing commercial opportunity.

Its platform combines bookings, payments, maintenance, inspections, inventory management, customer communications and staff activities into a single white-labelled system designed specifically for each client.

Unlike conventional software-as-a-service (SaaS) platforms where customers use versions of the same shared product with monthly subscriptions, NestFlow provides each client with a dedicated deployment, customised to reflect the client’s organisational structure, services, workflows and branding.

The approach makes each contract significantly more valuable but also more labour-intensive.

‘The major validation for us was that a business was actually prepared to pay for the platform, work through the implementation and use it in its operations,’ Owhonda said.

The company’s first two deployments have generated N14 million, with both founders financing the business themselves.

Okonma has funded much of the commercial operations while leading customer acquisition, negotiations and partnerships.

Owhonda shaped the platform’s technical architecture and has led its development, AI integration and deployment, translating complex hospitality operations into connected software workflows. Their early success comes as Nigeria’s hospitality industry continues to modernise, even though many small and medium-sized operators still depend heavily on manual processes and disconnected digital tools.

NestFlow’s software attempts to address that problem by creating digital records that connect every operational activity.

‘You are creating a record of who did what, what that thing is related to and what happened after that. It doesn’t remove every risk, but it makes it much harder for things to happen without any explanation,’ Owhonda explained.

Beyond reducing losses, the startup is also positioning the platform as a revenue growth tool. Its customer engagement features integrate WhatsApp communications and AI-assisted campaign calls, allowing property owners to reconnect with prospective guests who abandoned bookings or market promotions to previous customers.

For many smaller hospitality businesses, customer enquiries are handled manually through personal messaging accounts, making follow-up inconsistent and dependent on individual employees.

‘There are businesses losing revenue simply because the follow-up is bad. Someone shows interest, the conversation stops, and nobody has any process for bringing that customer back,’ Owhonda said.

The company’s business model occupies a middle ground between traditional SaaS subscriptions and fully customised software development.

Clients receive dedicated deployments with their own branding and domain names, while NestFlow retains ownership of the core technology platform and development framework. The model allows customers to operate software tailored to their businesses without paying for an entirely bespoke system.

However, scaling that approach presents its own challenges.

As the startup expands beyond its first customers, it must standardise more of its implementation process while maintaining the flexibility that differentiates its offering.

The founders also face the task of proving that the early commercial success can be replicated across Nigeria’s fragmented hospitality sector. That means demonstrating measurable improvements in customer conversion, operational efficiency, asset management and revenue protection after deployment, rather than simply selling software.

For now, NestFlow’s first contracts suggest a market exists for technology that promises more than reservations management. In a hospitality industry where hidden operational failures can quietly drain profits, the startup is betting that property owners will increasingly pay for something more valuable than another booking system, a clearer view of where their money is going.