First quarter report of Refinitiv, an LSEG (London Stock Exchange Group) business released today, shows that Mergers and Acquisitions (M&As) transactions I’m Sub Saharan Africa (SSA) totalled $3.8 billion in the first quarter of 2023.

As the World Malaria Day is marked globally, President of Dangote Group and United Nations’ Malaria Ambassador for Nigeria, Aliko Dangote has called for joint actions by all stakeholders globally if the collective goal of the disease elimination by 2030 is to be achieved.

Nigerian Breweries Plc has said it will seek shareholders’ approval for a loan of €110 million from its parent company, Heineken International, at its forthcoming annual general meeting (AGM).
This is as the company said it might face more difficult times if the Federal Government (FG) went ahead to increase excise duty on its products. The company says they are currently in talks with government.

As part of its initiatives to reduce poverty and alleviate hunger in the society, leading financial institution, Fidelity Bank Plc, recently launched a Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) scheme tagged the Fidelity Food Bank.
Through the initiative, the bank would partner with carefully selected charity organizations across Nigeria to provide food items to members of the society monthly.

Access Holdings Plc assets base grew by 28 per cent to N15.0 trillion and customer deposits to N9.25 trillion in its financial year ended 2022. it also ended the year with an impressive 5,8 million customers across its subsidiaries.
“Access Holdings Plc Full Year 2022 financial results showed strong growth across revenue lines, despite the strong
macroeconomic headwinds locally and internationally. We registered a record revenue of N 1.4 trillion a 43 per cent year-on-year (y/y) growth from the N971.9 billion it stood in the corresponding period of 2021 as we begin to see the dividends of organic & inorganic activities across the ecosystem. Access Holdings Plc recorded a Profit Before Tax of N167.7 billion, five per cent y/y decline from the N 176.6 billion recorded in 2021 following huge write downs from the Ghana sovereign debt crisis”, a statement made available to the Nigerian Exchange said.
Overall, Interest Income grew 37 per cent y/y to N827 billion, driven by a strong loan book growth despite the high inflationary environment.
Net loans & advances to customers grew by 25 per cent across the Banking group, with a deliberate focus on credit disbursement to critical segments and growth sectors of the economy. We also saw good growth across the Subsidiaries, in particular the UK (up 36% to N1.1trillion in 2022) Access Holdings Plc ended the year with over 58 million customers across the extensive network of subsidiaries and business verticals.
CASA mix went up by five per cent, to 6.3 per cent as a result of leveraging innovation, digital technology and financial inclusion to mobilize sustainable low-cost deposits.
In the second half of 2022, Access Holdings Plc completed the divestment from Pensions Custodian business and acquired significant shareholding in First Guarantee Pensions Ltd & Sigma Pensions Ltd to form Access Pensions Ltd. This combination resulted in the creation of the 4th largest PFA in Nigeria, with Asset under Management of N0.9trilion, putting us clearly in the league of strategic players in the Pensions industry.
Our Payment business went live with the Switching business in Q3 2022, while the other areas of the business will become
fully operational from second quarter of 2023. The overall business outlook for 2023 remains strong as we begin our new 5-year strategic journey which aims to make us one of the top 5 financial services organization in Africa by 2027.

Nigeria has been appointed as Deputy Chair for Finance Ministers Working Group for Commonwealth Call for Reform of the Global Financial Architecture.

Efforts by the Federal Government (FG) to ensure electricity Distribution Companies (DISCOs) install pre-meters in all homes in the country, the reverse is the case as the numbers of customers on estimated billing have increased to 5.91 million as at the third quarter of last year, according to the National Bureau of Statistics (NBA).