NECA lauds Tinubu’s tax reforms
The Nigerian Employers’ Consultative Association (NECA) has commended President Bola Tinubu for taking decisive actions to create a more conducive business climate in Nigeria through its strategic tax reform measures.
Adewale Smatt Oyerinde, the Director-General of NECA, gave this commendation in a statement on Thursday following Tinubu’s signing of four executive orders.
This new tax reform is an addition to four Executive Orders earlier signed by the president, which include the suspension of the five percent excise tax on telecommunication services as well as the excise duties escalation on locally manufactured products.
Oyerinde said “In this context, Tinubu’s bold intervention through several Executive Orders has been welcomed with great enthusiasm.
“Particularly notable are the suspension of the five percent excise tax on telecommunication services and the excise duties on items like tobacco, beer, wine/spirits, and the 10 percent green tax by way of excise tax on Single Use Plastics.
“Additionally, the Import Tax Adjustment of two percent and four percent on imported motor vehicles of varying engine capacities has been put on hold.
“We are genuinely thrilled by the new Executive Orders; these amendments will undeniably enhance the operating environment and alleviate the high cost of doing business in Nigeria, especially in light of the recent fuel subsidy removal,” he said.
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NNPCL plans another $8bn international gas pipeline
The Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL) said it would be constructing another international gas pipeline worth almost $8 billion.
Mele Kyari, the Group Chief Executive Officer, Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited, made this announcement on Thursday during a panel session at the ongoing 8th Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries International Seminar in Vienna, Austria.
Kyari said that the NNPCL and its partners are currently working on the construction of the $25 billion Nigeria-Morocco gas pipeline that is to supply gas from Nigeria to about 11 African countries and transport it from Morocco to Europe.
The gas pipeline is expected to go through the Niger Republic to Algeria and then to Europe and would help reduce Europe’s dependency on Russia for gas, especially as its war with Ukraine continues.
He said, “We are building a $25 billion pipeline from Nigeria to Morocco through 11 West African countries. There’s another pipeline we are planning to build through the Niger Republic and through Algeria into Europe, and the potential is between $7 billion and $8 billion.
“We are also expanding our current LNG (Liquefied Natural Gas) facility with another train. And, of course, what that does is that it doubles the capacity of the current facility, and this is going to be made available to the market.”
Universal Insurance records N8.8bn premium income first half 2023
Universal Insurance Plc said on Thursday it had recorded a total premium income of N8.8 billion in the first half of the year.
Benedict Ujaotuonu, the Managing Director of the insurance company, said this at a meeting with newsmen in Lagos.
Ujaotuonu explained that the underwriter posted N3.7 billion and N5.1 billion as total premium income in the first and second quarters, respectively, to record N8.8 billion in the first half of the year.
He said the N5.1 billion generated by the firm in the second quarter of the year was almost the total of its overall premium generated in 2022.
“We are targeting a total of N10 billion in premium income at the end of this year, and with our current performance, we are very optimistic and hopeful to meet the target.
“Our target for 2024, of course, will be derived from our performance at the end of 2023, but our premium income target for 2024 is between N15 billion and N18 billion,” he said.
Samsung Elec flags 96% drop in Q2 profit
Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd., a multinational electronics corporation, said the 96 percent plunge in second-quarter operating profit is likely due largely to a chip glut that drives large losses in the tech giant.
This announcement came on Friday as the world’s largest memory chip and smartphone maker estimated its operating profit fell to 600 billion won ($459 million) in April to June from 14.1 trillion won a year earlier in a short preliminary earnings statement.
This dip in profit is the lowest the company has recorded for any quarter since a 590 billion won profit in the first quarter of 2009, according to company data.
Twitter threatens to sue Meta over Threads
There seems to be no end in sight in the brewing conflict between Twitter and Facebook owner Meta, following news that the microblogging app has threatened to take Meta to court just hours after Meta launched Threads.
Meta had boasted earlier of Thread’s ability to dislodge Elon’s struggling site, promising to hit one hundred subscribers within its first month.
In a letter to Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, published by online news outlet Semafor on Thursday, Musk lawyer Alex Spiro accused the company of “unlawful misappropriation of Twitter’s trade secrets and other intellectual property.”
The letter accused Meta of hiring dozens of former Twitter employees who “had and continue to have access to Twitter’s trade secrets and other highly confidential information.”
