Volume II, Issue 17

Tax Evasion! Adenuga May Have Problems With Foreign Banks

A feel of public opinion immediately after the publication of the damning news of company income tax evasion by Continental Oil and Gas and Conoil Producing, two upstream oil companies belonging to Otunba Mike Adenuga Jr., was that the $610million (N89billion) tax demand the Federal Inland Revenue Service had made on the companies would not stir Adenuga’s considerable wealth and business standing. However, it would seem that perception may be different from reality, two weeks after the May 7, 2009 shutdown of operations at the two companies, the gates of the companies still remained no admittance zones with the seal and locks of the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS). Officials of the Revenue Service that Fortune&Class spoke with insisted that though Adenuga has been trying to rally the influence of his powerful friends in and out of government, the FIRS will not back out of the demand order until the full sum of the tax due is paid. …

Fortune And Class Demands Excess Bank Charges Refund From Intercontinental Bank

In a test of procedure and standard of rules governing the banking industry, Fortune and Class Limited, publishers of Fortune&Class Magazine and Fortune&Class Weekly, has taken issues with Intercontinental Bank over excess bank charges incurred on its overdraft account with the bank. And as a first, the management of the company has directed the firm of Forensic Consulting to forward a demand letter for the refund of N243,639.02 being excess bank charges discovered by forensic accountants while reconciling the account. …

Unity Bank Yet To Declare Corporate Result In Two Years

Unity Bank of Plc has defied the standing rules of the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) and the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on post listing requirements which assert that listed companies must release their quarterly and annual operations and performance result to the investing public through the Stock Exchange and the SEC as and when…

Delisted firms: shareholders rally support to recoup funds

The Independent Shareholders Association of Nigeria (ISAN) is reported be rallying support to help investors of recently de-listed companies on the Daily Official List of the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) recoup their investments in the companies.
According to a report by Proshare NI, Adeleke Adebayo, General Secretary of the Association has confirmed that ISAN had visited…

Agusto & Co Assigns “Bb+” rating to Swap Technologies & Telecoms Plc

Augusto&Co, Nigeria’s respected rating company has assigned a rating of “Bb+” to Swap Technologies & Telecoms Plc. According to a release by the rating company, the rating of Swap Technologies & Telecoms Plc reflects the company’s strengthened capital position, adequate working capital and satisfactory profitability. The rating is hampered by weak operating cash flows resulting…

Telkom Reports That Nigerian Operation Is Difficult …losses In The Country Halve Profit

Losses at Telkom’s Nigerian unit and costs including charges related to stake sales cut the telecoms company’s profit by as much as 50 percent for the financial year to March. Headline earnings a share from continuing operations were as much as 50 percent lower than the previous year. Headline earnings a share, including discontinued operations…

Foreign Fund Managers Show New Interest In Nigerian Stock Market

Fund managers in the United States of America and Europe have been reported by Reuters to be showing more than passing interest in stock markets in Africa with the Nigerian stock market providing the greatest attraction.

The report claimed that having fled Africa in droves during last year’s global financial turmoil, portfolio investors are slowly…

Wonder Bank Fund Laundered On The Stock Exchange Through Capital Oil

There is a strong agitation by financial sector watchers over the possibility of illegal money laundering on the platform of the Nigerian Stock Exchange. A report by Proshare Nigeria indicates that Capital Oil Plc (Capoil), a security listed in the second tier segment of the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) has listed shares purchased with funds…

How We Planned To Save Minority Shareholders In Delisted Companies-Independent Shareholders Association Scribe

In this interview with PETER OBIORA of Proshare NI, Adeleke Adebayo, the General Secretary Independent Shareholders Association of Nigeria (ISAN) at the venue of the 84th Annual General Meeting (AGM) of Unilever Nigeria Plc (Unilever) discusses issues relating to the recently delisted companies on the Floor of the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE), what shareholders are doing to help save minority investors, and why companies delist from the Exchange.

Other issues discussed include the delisting of Cappa D’Alberto Plc from the NSE, shareholders efforts to help investors of recently delisted companies, Unilever and 68 Kobo dividend to investors of the company, Cadbury Nigeria Plc (Cadbury) and Okitipupa Oil Plc raising fresh funds. Excerpts: …

CBN Slams Stock Brokers Over Interest Rate…Vetiva Capital Management Ltd Loses Millions To Clients

Are stockbroking firms legally empowered to charge interest on margin account or to undertake any form of lending activity with objective to profit from through accrual of interest rate? This is the question the Central Bank of Nigeria may have resolved with its declaration that stockbroking firms or asset management companies cannot possibly qualify to…

Volume 2, Issue 16

This week on your Fortune&Class Magazine;

FIRS SEALS ADENUGA’S OIL COMPANIES OVER N89 BILLION TAX EVASION
It would sound rather ironical that the totality of the Nigerian state has been compelled to reconsider the structure of its national budget which has a built-in 500 million dollar deficit financing plan, about 30 per cent of the national budget, because of the certain realization that it could not possibly raise the dollar sum in the international finance market as planned, yet, two oil companies owned by Otunba Mike Adenuga Jr. are reported to be indebted to the Federal Government, through various forms of taxes, a sum calculated at 610.6million dollar (N89,147,600,000). …

STOCK MARKET REBOUND IS SUSPICIOUS -Experts
For some more discerning investors and analysts, the pillaging of the Nigerian stock market last Thursday, 14 May 2009 was inevitable. The Nigerian stock market had witnessed a sudden upward trending, albeit unexpectedly, since March, but showing consistency over the last two weeks.

Analysts at Meristem Securities capture the character of the final days of the bull in the market, last week, as prices of stocks generally hugged the sky when they noted in their stock market daily report of Wednesday, 13 May that: …

WHY THE PRESIDENCY WANTS TRANSCORP MD, TOM ISEGHOHI, PROSECUTED
The detention and questioning first by the State Securities Services and later by officials of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, of Mr. Tom Iseghohi, Group Managing Director of Transcorp and two other officials of Transcorp Plc, Mohammed Buba, Company Secretary, and the Head of Shared Services, Mike Okoli may not be unconnected with complains emanating from the presidency over the management of the nation’s former sole national carrier, NITEL, a now moribund company the Federal Government desperate wants vended off to a more competent and qualified core investor, away from the majority holding of Transcorp. …

RACE FOR NSE DG HOTS UP
There are subterranean maneouvres and scheming involving some top management staffer of the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) following the expected exit of Professor (Mrs.) Ndi-Okereke-Onyiuke, the Group Chief Executive Officer/ Director General (GCEO/DG) of the NSE in year 2010, according to an investigation conducted by Proshare. …

HEAD HUNTERS GO AFTER ACCESS BANK SHARES
The recent rally in the Nigerian stock market was an enough signal to put most investors to place their stock brokers on the alert mandate, once price of particular stocks reached a given threshold. These, investors, like the generality of the market investors, had watched helplessly their money locked in to shares they bought in the momentous period of the bulls’ domination of the Nigerian Stock Exchange, except that they are willing to sell now to discount their losses because of their huge holdings. …

NIGERIAN BREWERIES STILL THE STOCK OF CHOICE
Analysts at Proshare NI have submitted that only two stocks have attained 2009 highs and these are Nigerian Breweries and Benue Cement Company. In an analysis as contained in Proshare NI market review, the analysts observed that between the beginning of the market rally on March 31, 2009 and May 7, 2009, the Nigerian Breweries stock had gained N16.75K, a gain of 46.85 per cent. The analysts opined that the stock must have picked up possibly due to less number of shares outstanding of 7.56billion which trims down the desire by most investors to dump shares.

BGL PRIVATE PLACEMENT FAILED PROMISE…INVESTORS REGRET

The investment environment was way different back in November 2007 when BGL one of Nigeria’s leading investment banking firms, conducted its private placement exercise. The Nigerian stock market was in ascendancy with the Nigerian Stock Exchange All Share Index growing by 96.2 c from 26,161.15 in June 2006 to 51,330.46 in June 2007. Market […]

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Danger Signals For Nigerian Investors In Dubai Properties

The loud pitches about the high returns in investing in properties in Dubai rent the Nigerian national space all through 2008. It was auspicious for Dubai real estate vendor in the country at that time; the Nigerian stock market, prosperous over a straight five-year period beginning in 2003, had suddenly copped out in the […]

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CAPITAL MARKET CRASH: THE CASE AGAINST THE BANKS

EFCC Boss

When the Director-General of the Securities and Exchange Commission demanded that some banks’ chief executives that had become richer than their banks should be questioned, it was the first formal acknowledgement of the abuses some commercial banks chief executives perpetrated in the Nigerian stock market while the gains and benefits in the market were on the upward swing.

Yet in a report filed by Reuters, a news agency, and published in various national newspapers in August 2007, it had become apparent that there were wary signs of obvious manipulations in the market for the benefits of a few, especially, banking chiefs.

“Investors in Nigeria’s burgeoning stock market are seeing danger signals that the recent rally is turning into a bubble,” the report filed in the third quarter of 2007, had observed .

“Concerns focus on banks, where share price growth has been spectacular since a wave of consolidation in 2005. Most bank stocks have more than doubled in value this year (2007) alone — some have risen by more than 500 per cent — and the majority now trade at more than 20 times their expected 2008 earnings,” the report alerted.

Furthering its alarmed reading of the stock market back in 2007 when it seemed everybody was a winner in the stock market, the Reuter report added:

“Investors say these multiples are unsustainable, even for a fast-growing “pioneer” market like Nigeria, where investor confidence has been growing steadily since economic reforms began in 2003. The report quoted Mr. Jonathan Chew of Imara Asset Management UK Limited which had $25 million invested in Nigerian securities back then as saying that:

“All the indicators of a market going out of control are here, when the entire retail sector is talking about stocks and shares, you know it is getting toppy,”

Reuters had observed then that fears of a bubble in the banking sector have mounted on reports that some banks were engaged in highly leveraged share purchase schemes through stockbrokers. The Reuters 2007 report supported this claim with the opinions of notable operators in the market.

“One senior bank executive said he knew of one case where a capital market operator borrowed six billion naira from a bank to invest in that bank’s shares.” The report asserted while quoting Bismarck Rewane who the report described as a consultant with Financial Derivatives Co. in Lagos who agreed that the practice (highly leveraged share purchase scheme) was widespread.

“Margin trading is the biggest gamble in town right now. It’s very dangerous,” Rewane was reported to have said.

The Reuters report also quoted Godwin Obaseki, managing director of Afrinvest, who said banks have extended big loans to brokers, perhaps as much as 20 per cent of the whole country’s credit.”

Obaseki was, however, quoted in that report to have said he did not know of cases where banks insisted on the loans being used to buy their own shares, which according to him, would be illegal.

More than a year after the report was filed, the Nigerian stock market had unraveled, the suspicion and alarming indicators have been more or less confirmed by the outburst of the SEC’s DG on banks’ high exposure to the stock market, but more than this is the confirmation of the existence of the illegality Obaseki had denied in 2007 about banks granting loans to stock brokers and investors on the condition that they use the facilities to buy their (banks) shares.

Indeed, the practice became a standard in the banking industry especially during the second wave of public offers conducted by listed banks on the Exchange. Industry players talked of how banks provided funds for brokers and other investors to acquire their own shares during public offer. Industry watchers explained that most of the banks resorted to this to make their standing in the capital market look good to the investing public.

Besides, public offers by the implicated banks provided opportunities for bank chief executives and other directors to jostle to take position in the equity of the bank to acquire enough stakes in the bank either to position for influence or to later trade in the equity when price of the stock moved up,” an expert revealed.

“Again, banks also engaged in providing funds to brokers and investors to acquire shares of banks considered choice banks, especially the shares of First Bank Plc, this is one of the reasons the public offer of the bank was over-subscribed by more than 600 per cent, the bank merely wanted to raise N100 billion but it ended up with more than N600billion, money mostly funded towards acquisition of its shares from other commercial banks,” the stock market expert said.

“The idea is that since public offers provide the opportunity to acquire enough shares without the possibility of price moving as a result of demand for the shares outstripping demand as it would happen in the secondary market, funds are routed into the market to acquire as many shares as possible during the public offer with intent at trading in the shares when they are listed for transaction in the secondary market,” the expert further explained.

While the bullish run persisted in the market, the performance of a bank’s stock in the stock market was a measure of the buoyancy of the bank, expert said; this, coupled with the desire of bank’s management to raise cheap funds from the market made many banks to provide funds to willing stock brokers and selected investors to mop their shares in the secondary market. Prices of such banking stocks naturally moved up because of the pressure of the programmed demand on the stocks.

“I can tell you that at a point in time, it seemed as if the only preoccupation of most banks was manipulating the stock market to wring out the last hope of gains. All these contributed to defacing the market and inevitably led to the crash of the Nigerian stock market,” an analyst submitted.

2009 Outlook: Key Questions for the Director-General of the Nigeria Stock Exchange

If you had an opportunity to ask the Director General of the Nigerian Stock Exchange a question, what would you like to know from her?

Some investors, fund managers and equity analysts have sent in their concerns/questions; some of which were addressed by the DG, NSE at the Annual Review held at the Nigerian Stock Exchange on Monday, January 12, 2009.

However, the following questions, submitted by our board of analysts remain unanswered:

1) Bail-Out: Why has the Federal Government refused to provide a concrete bail out plan for the capital market, not just lip service? Do we think this will change with a change in the Federal Ministry of Finance given that other forward looking economies recognised the need to re-build confidence in its capital markets by taking actions that would bring about the much desired liquidity needed, albeit; with much more emphasis on regulatory control and accountability?

2) Alternative Market Strategies: The NSE (an SRO) along with other regulators has been talking about the introduction of simple options to the capital markets for over two years now. Why has this not been implemented?

At the moment, there are only two strategies investors can use in trading the NSE (that is, buy or sell) and in a free fall or in a downtrend as we have currently, there are usually no buyers for willing sellers.

Even with the introduction of market makers and ‘funding providers’, the makers will not be willing to buy shares that they know are fundamentally weak (given that the incidence of corporate governance and believability of financial reporting in the country is subject to risk discounting risk here relates to poor observance of standards and reporting requirements). If options are available or other strategies, investors can play the market even in a downtrend. The limited options/alternatives for traders at the NSE is keeping sophisticated ‘international’ investors from the NCM. The market appears too one directional.

3) Margin Accounts: With banks not providing margin loans to investors, it appears difficult for the Nigerian Stock Market to maintain any upward momentum or traction.

Has the Director General looked into other alternative source of financing for investors and brokerage firms?

Can the Federal Government provide brokerage firms guaranteed loans which can be loaned to investors based on strict guidelines as an alternative to an outright bail-out?

4) Demutualisation of the NSE: How does the NSE intend to conclude this key 2009 internal goals during a market cycle where most investors are not able to fully participate? The conversion of the NSE into a listed company appears desirable and precedents in Eqypt, J’borg and New York support the viability of such a proposition but to do so in a year where strategic management changes and movements have taken place, and will take place, as well as the governance and process capacity issues/challenges taking place will require a broad range of investor support.

We are interested in knowing more about the conversion of the not-for-profit organisation to a value and profit driven one in such a way as to allow each willing and able investor to participate.

5) New Products: The NSE recently launched five new indexes (including the NSE 30) working with reputable firms that have a history of creating such. We believe it is a welcome development that forward looking firms may create products around.

When will this be introduced in the market and does it not portend a dire signal for firms not included in the index or their sector not considered profitable enough to have a sectoral index?

Is it possible for the criteria or/and weighting of the index be made available for equity analysts?

6) Dealing with Current Challenges: in the last few weeks, there has been a spate of occurrences, not on such a large scale as to pronounce it a major crisis but it is a crisis itself, given that it is occurring in a market with confidence at its lowest ebb. Dud cheques have been issued to investors and fellow fund managers alike. What does the aggrieved receiver of such cheque have to do and what measures are in place to address these challenges given that it goes to the heart of the ‘confidence’ question?

7) Investor Enlightenment: The astounding reality of the market and indeed our larger economy was best summed up by the former president, Olusegun Obasanjo, who in a departure from the less than believable comments of the CBN Governor, declared that the current crisis will visit the poor and rich alike.

If you consider the yearning of the hard working employee, market trader, artisans, aspiring manager, church goer and widower, who in the heat of the capital market boom were plastered all over with offers and media blitz on the viability and security of investments in the NCM, and who now have to worry about the expected income due from the market to meet obligations but cannot access it; you will know that the current meltdown will affect people differently.

Hope is a casualty in this market, so also is the believability of the operators because of their silence. Investors have simply been told to wait and allow ‘nature to take its course’. The caveat emptor that should have been ringing out in the first place now becomes breaking news at this tail end of market downturn.

These are the first death throes. The question is what sort of market will remain?

Yet, one heard not one expression of real remorse or accountability from any of them. They had nothing to offer except the time-worn counsel of confidence men: trust me. Instead of protecting our market or at least preparing the investors and players alike for the possible challenges, we did what we have always done best as a nation…deploy self denial as a shield from the truth.

Maybe not everyone was playing the ostrich game, at least not brazenly. While the CBN Governor embarked on a self effacing trip on being nominated to attend the world deliberations on the crisis, the Ministry of Finance was silent, shooting down everything pushed forward to ameliorate the situation without providing an alternative. The Director General of the NSE, to her credit, continued to show empathy, and spoke consistently about her heavy burden and desire to see that the ordinary citizen/investor is assisted to overcome the current challenge.

The question she has to provide now is: how do we hope to achieve this? What should the investor do from tomorrow?

Source: Proshare Nigeria

REAL ESTATE INVESTMENT MAY BE IN TROUBLE SOON – EXPERTS WARN

Many investors have taken a flight to the safety of real estate in the aftermath of the worrisome protracted correction that had turned the Nigerian stock market into the grazing ground of the bears with stock prices continuously hitting new bottoms by the day.

Analyzing the prospects of a downturn in the real estate sector, a second tier bank managing director explained that the frenzy of investors’ movement to the real estate sector would end up in creating artificial value for property which, as result, will lead to a correction in the sector.

“Everybody is now rushing to the real estate sector because the stock market is no longer providing the kind of capital appreciation we witnessed up to March this year.” The bank’s MD observed.

“But the problem I see is that not many people are giving consideration to proper valuation of property. Like it happened in the stock market, the herd mentality is being enacted in the real estate sector, especially those that are rushing to take position in highbrow areas. For instance, in the Lagos area, most investors think that properties in the Lekki-Ajah corridor would continue to appreciate forever. This is a wrong notion because the price of these properties is high at this moment for reasons of high demand pressure.

“What I believe will eventually happen is that properties would soon be priced out of reach of usage. When you get to that point, people that had bought into these properties with intent at trading them off may not be able to free their investment because there would be nobody to buy, even letting may no longer be feasible because of over pricing. When we get to this scenario, the only plausible response would be another desperate bid to get out of the sector; the consequence would be too many properties asking to be bought by too few buyers. This leads to price crash” The MD argued.

“I will counsel that anybody who wants to go into property should consider newly developing areas that are just growing so that they can buy cheap and tend the properties with a medium to long term view.” He advised.

Mr. Ori Adeyemo, a forensic accountant, however, reviewed his consideration of the fate of the real estate sector from the background of the banking credit relationships with their customers.

“The logic is simple enough. The two most reliable forms of collateral for Nigerian banks are stocks and properties. Now with the protracted fall in the stock prices, stocks that have been pledged as collateral to banks have become more or less worthless such that stocks are no longer popular with banks as collateral.

“But there is a tie-in somewhere in the credit transaction between banks and their credit customer. Most customers had pledged their properties as collateral to secure credit to finance their stock market transactions, some had gone ahead to use the money from the credit transactions from their banks as margin participation funds with their stockbrokers and in some cases, their banks.

“Of course, I had always warned that the stock market was headed for a crash, but not many people heeded my call. Now that we found ourselves in this situation of price falling endlessly, it translates to mean that banks cannot redeem their funds from selling pledged stocks, so the next would be to start offering the properties pledged as securities in the open market in the desperate bid to recover their money from their credit customers. You will expect that so many properties would be in the market at the same time competing with those other properties investors had taken position in. The result is a saturation of the properties market on the supply side. What I see is properties prices falling drastically.

“At this point in time, I advise the average investor to remain calm and proper evaluation of whatever is his or her next investment step because situations tend to change drastically at time like this.” Adeyemo suggested.

LET THE INSTITUTIONAL INVESTORS PLAY THEIR GAME

The Nigerian stock market, last week, showed a robust sign of revving up for a rebound. Great! As I suggested last week, majority of stocks that showed promise of northward expression were in the banking and insurance sectors. On paper, there is so much money to be made with recently stricken otherwise blue chip stocks in the banking sector baring beggarly price tags with humbling price earning ratio after the onslaught of the bears.

However, I believe it is not yet time to run into the fray as the bulls take on the bears to change the character of the market. Whoever did not buy when the market was abysmally low should be patient enough to rest out the initial face of the upward swing, this is the way I see it and it’s going to be my position.

I have a hunch feeling the first set of price rising would benefit the skillful speculators that would be on the lookout to off load relative price increase on the easily excited peripheral market players that, expectedly would rush into the market, desperate to share in the lapping of the juice.

I’ll suggest you let the institutional players set the tone, they have bagful of funds, in another two weeks we should know where the market is truly headed for.

So, if you belong in my investment family, I counsel that you play the calm in the storm of the recent excitement.

STOCK MARKET REBOUND…WACTH OUT BEFORE YOU INVEST

The excitement returned to the Nigerian stock market last week when in two days in a roll the market recorded gains that had become foreign to a market that seems to be determined for a southern movement since March this year. For the first time in several weeks, the protracted decline in the measurement of performances of the market moved northward to the delight of investors and all of a sudden the scenario changed from a market saturated with stocks to one characterised by scarcity of stocks as investors desperate bids to buy certain shares were rebuffed by unavailability. Market analysts observed that volume of shares on offer dropped significantly, suggesting a possible retraction from selling, as investors hope for further price appreciation and the bid to purchase shares took an upturn indicating a possible restoration of investors’ confidence.

 

Some more perspective market watchers argued that the market is not yet an all comer affair. Those that offered to speak with FORTUNE & CLASS Weekly said they strongly believe that the market can for now be described as the players market…a market dominated by institutional investors and stock brokers. Private investigations conducted indicated that most small to medium investors wishing to join in the share buying fray so as to profit from the rock bottom prices of many of the now highly undervalued stocks were left in the lurch with bids unfulfilled.

 

Latest news in the market informed that the new momentum driving the market may not be unconnected with the early bird initiative of some commercial banks that have quickly exploited the opportunities offered about the extension of tenor for credit facilities for margin trading and the 360 days elongation of the Central Bank of Nigeria’s expanded discount window.

 

The CBN’s new policy on discount window liberalises access to funds by commercial banks and also extends the repayment tenor of funds borrowed from the CBN through the discount window.

 

A market source confided that some of these early starter banks had provided funds for the purpose of shares purchase to stockbrokers, of course with a proviso for the preferences of shares to be purchased.

This, according to FORTUNE & CLASS source influenced the sudden liquidity position of the market. In light of this, another market player has suggested that small to medium size investors should be very careful not to get their fingers burnt in the supposed reawakening of the market.

 

I can tell you that great opportunities are on offer in the market right now with otherwise fundamentally strong stocks been priced at low price. But as the market seemingly embarked on a rebound, small to medium size investors should be wary of falling into a regretful pit. I want to suggest that investors take note of the following: Nobody is sure at the moment if the market has completely bottomed out. As things stand, institutional investors are engaged in what is called fishing the bottom market and i can tell you that this is an herculean task, because the upturn following a decline is often short lived and results in a continued price decline and hence a loss of capital for investors that purchased stocks during a misperceived or fake market bottom.

 

“Besides, nobody can tell for certain that the market will not revert to the bearish swing again as a result of speculators taking profit from the marginal capital appreciation enjoyed by some of the stocks that gained last week. And no one is sure that a small time investor will get his order for shares purchase effected by his or her stockbroker.”

Obama will be a good president

Obama: Head or tail, history made

Away from our beleaguered stock market and the yet roiling global financial markets. At least, a little bit of sanity is returning to the Nigerian stock market though not by way of positive market activities, thankfully, the management of the Nigerian Stock Market has finally discerned the wisdom that informs free market activities by removing the one percent down limit on stocks price depreciation. Good enough, prices are stumbling; curiously, most hurt in the crashing prices are stocks of banks and insurance companies. The manufacturing sector is curiously holding steady, prices of UAC Nigeria, UAC Property and even those in the health sector; especially the pharmaceuticals have managed to hold their own at relative sliding rate. Does this tell a story?

 

I think it does, the power of any economy is a function of its real and active sector. Investors seem to have decidedly held faith with companies that are producing goods and products they can relate with and have turned their backs on the services of the financial sector with the average fall in price of stocks in that sector calculated at more than 50 percent. I guess it all about fears and negative sentiment. Yet, I can still dare to propose that in that sector lies the redeeming prospect of the market. Why?

Financial sector players understand the Nigerian economic market, perhaps, much more than any other sectoral player, and of course, they know how to get things done. They have been at the commanding height of the economy since the military inspired economic structural adjustment programme as influenced by the International Monetary Funds. Nigerian banks and bankers had survived much turbulence since 1993 when we first witnessed the first wholesale crash of the national banking sector and had returned stronger and better.

  So if First Bank is selling for less than 30 per cent of its peak price in 2008 at N20 plus and Access at less than 100 per cent of its high this year, I am tempted to go searching for value in the finance sector.

Please, excuse me, the stock market was not supposed to be in focus this week. I am very sure, the most discussed issue that would be discussed the whole of this week will be the USA presidential election while the most mentioned name any where in the corners of the globe this week will be Barrack Obama, that genteel, lithe figure that suddenly happened on the American political scene and had since captured the imagination of American across age, gender and other persuasion.

It’s natural to expect an opinionated African to canvass an Obama presidency, isn’t it natural? Of course, to my mind, this is the final resolution of the opposites that had defined relationship among people across the world, and for once, an indication that Africa, will, despite the interface of all morbid attributions in national leadership of countries across the black African continent, is where ultimate civilization and prosperity is headed. This may not be more than 50 years, I feel a reordering of the global economic space, an Obama USA presidency will be the beginning of the process.

Is this some fanciful thought? I don’t know, but it’s not every time that an individual, seemingly unqualified for a position just suddenly start marshalling the most effective strategies to beat political institutions in the United States.

The fact that Obama, a black-white man, or put properly, a white-black man (still wonder why they still primarily describe him as a black man as if the white gene and pigmentation of his mum were of no consequence) subsumed the Clintons and veteran John McCain in the opinion of people across the USA should convince anybody that Obama will be a good president.

No need to cajole logic and other persuasive argument about the worthiness of Obama, he has proved this by taking the battle to republican states and even competing on favourable numbers in McCain’s Arizona. And even more interesting, he turned the institution of the republican into a bleary eyed pumpkin mask only suitable to be laughed at during Halloween. Obama is that awesome.

So, can we be practical enough to stop all those talks of a McCain miraculous come as he had done before in those other elections into the senate. This is a different ball game; we are talking here about a phenomenon who is just being introduced to the world stage. Something tells me the world will not be the same after four years of Obama…but that will be if he survives the first term. Now, that’s talk for another day.