With the recent shifts in Nigeria’s foreign exchange landscape, Anayo Nwosu, a seasoned banker, has shared valuable insights on the evolving forex market, advising businesses and individuals on strategic financial positioning.

“The commencement of local petroleum product supply by the Dangote Refinery will significantly reduce the pressure on the demand for dollars in Nigeria. For a long time, Nigeria has spent heavily on importing petroleum products, which fueled the demand for foreign currency. Now, with local production, that demand will drop,” Nwosu noted.

Nwosu also highlighted the broader impact of Dangote’s operations on Nigeria’s foreign exchange inflows. “Dangote will not only meet local demand but also generate foreign exchange through exports to sub-Saharan Africa. This is a game-changer. The refinery’s reach covers West, Central, and Southern Africa, and it will control the sale of aviation fuel across the continent. It’s no surprise that 16 European refineries are considering shutting down due to this competitive threat.”

Despite these benefits, Nwosu cautioned about potential challenges. “If the Federal Government prioritizes selling crude oil to meet Dangote’s needs, Nigeria’s FX earnings from crude oil will decline, which may reduce the FX available to the Central Bank of Nigeria for official sales to banks. This could impact importers and businesses that rely on FX for Letters of Credit and other transactions.”

However, Nwosu pointed out a crucial trend that savvy business owners should note. “The naira has already appreciated between N150 and N200 in just a week. This indicates that the exchange rate for the dollar to naira has started falling. Smart businesses should take advantage of this and hold their funds in naira, not dollars, as the market adjusts.”

His overall advice is strategic but simple: “Importers and distributors of foreign products must read the economic weather well. The forex landscape is changing rapidly, and those who act now will be better positioned for future gains.”

Anthony Emeka Nwosu

 

The Management of Nigeria Education Loan Fund (NELFUND) under the leadership of its Managing Director/CEO, Mr Akintunde Sawyerr is pleased to announce that it has received the highest student loan application within the span of 24 hours.

Within the last 24 hours, the fund recorded a total of 9,687 student registrations, of which 7,975 are completed loan applications. This marks the highest in one day since the launch of the student loan application portal on the 25th May 2024.

This overwhelming surge in interest, underscores the critical role that NELFUND plays in enabling access to higher education, for students facing financial challenges.

The high number of applications confirms the fact that financial constraints is a major issue that many aspiring higher education students are facing. It reinforces the importance of NELFUND’s work in providing the necessary support to Nigerian youth.

The Fund recorded this significant milestone in its mission to support students struggling with tertiary education financing across the nation. It is in line with the vision and action of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu (GCFR).

Since the opening of the student loan application portal, NELFUND has recorded and steady and consistent influx of applications, highlighting the pressing need for financial assistance among Nigerian students.

The Fund hereby urges all students who are experiencing financial difficulties to take advantage of this well intended opportunity provided by The President, His Excellency, Bola Ahmed Tinubu.
Eligible students are therefore encouraged to apply for the loan through the NELFUND portal.

NELFUND’s streamlined application process is designed to be user-friendly, ensuring that students can easily access the support they need.

The dedicated support team is available to assist applicants throughout the process, providing guidance and answering any questions they may have.

This milestone is not just a testament to the effectiveness of the Fund’s outreach and the trust that students place in the program and the President’s pronouncement, but also a call to action for those who have not yet applied.

For more information on how to apply for a student loan, please visit our website: nelf.gov.ng
or contact us via our verified social media handles.

 

 

 

Union Systems Limited (USL), Africa’s leading  finance software company  located in Victoria Island Lagos has recently made industry players in finance and tech space to understand the unique product(s) offerings that they have and places they have deployed in in various banks in Nigeria and other parts of Africa. This product(s) expose to the media has been lauded by financial players, describing their various solutions like Kachasi international Trade Finance solution and other financial solutions such as Sakobia, Optimus, EGORA and Tentacles as world-class.

Speaking to the team of journalist, Chuks Onyebuchi, the Chief Executive Officer of Union System Limited described Union Systems as “USL has been a player in the delivery of financial software solutions to financial institutions for over 2 decades, in this time, we have seen a steady increase in the intricacies of software requirements from these institutions as their process have evolved to suit the increasing sophistications of their customers. This has inevitably brought about the demand for more efficient but simpler to use solutions, this is what USL prides herself in being able to continuously deliver.

He added that “USL is a financial technology provider, we however deal primarily at the provision of business to business (B2B) enterprise financial software solutions. These solutions have a longer development cycle, a longer implementation cycle and are very integral to achieving the objectives of the financial institutions that adopts them…These implementations and many others have not only been successful but have helped these banks meet their strategic objectives. Our solutions are very flexible and highly configurable eliminating almost completely the need for customizations. This has increased the rate of adoption within our client’s organization and faster return on investments (ROI).”

On the Union System seamless integration to the CBN monitoring, Chuks opined that “The TRMS is one of several regulatory portals through which the CBN monitors specific international trade and treasury related transactions. Through collaboration with major financial institutions in Nigeria, we had integrated to similar regulatory portals such as the NSW, NCS and the NIBBS portal, so the integration of the TRMS portal was achieved with little challenges. It also helped that we were involved, also through our existing collaborations, with the testing of the initially release pilot version.”

On products acceptability in various countries and banks, Onyebuchi said “USL has demonstrated this already with our flagship Kachasi international Trade Finance solution and our other financial solutions (Sakobia, Optimus, EGORA and tentacles). The same can be said about other sectors of the economy such as health, agriculture, education and so on where we have Nigerians driving change and competing effectively. As the support and adoption for world-class indigenous solutions, such as ours, increases, Nigerians will continue to break the glass ceiling and produce software that can compete on a global stage. Kachasi is in production in 5 commercial and merchant banks in Nigeria today. We are in advanced stages of negotiation with several other banks in Nigeria and Kenya.”

The company has built a robust support system for their clients and customers that have virtually eliminated downtime in their platform,” Our approach to support starts with building capacities within the banks right from the implementation stage thereby ensuring a formidable first line of support from within and that the right sense of ownership is attained before the end of the implementation project. Where the bank is unable to solve the problem with its first line of support, the issue is logged on our support portal, ISURA, where our team of experts representing a second line of support are available for prompt resolution”, Chuks said.

As Africa’s leading trade finance software company for over 20 years, the company has been delivering future thinking trade finance software solutions to banks and corporates in Africa to achieve full automation and digitization of their trade operations. Our trade finance software solutions deliver growth, profitability, and regulatory compliance to banks and corporates.

With headquarters in Lagos, Nigeria, the company has a deep understanding of the African market and a team of highly qualified consultants with real-world experience in the delivery of complex software solutions. They have been creating software solutions that solve business problems and provide professional services that give value to our customers such as Kachasi (previously Trade-X), Optimus (Single and multibank), Isura, Sakobia, Tentacles and Egora were all designed and developed by USL in their Lagos, Nigeria Head office. A major advantage of adopting their solutions is the elimination of the need to source for FX to license them

 

 

 

 

 

 

Our approach to support starts with building capacities within the banks right from the implementation stage thereby ensuring a formidable first line of support from within and that the right sense of ownership is attained before the end of the implementation project. Where the bank is unable to solve the problem with its first line of support, the issue is logged on our support portal, ISURA, where our team of experts representing a second line of support are available for prompt resolution”