The salvation of Barclays comes back to haunt it

Businessam StaffJune 21, 2017

During the depths of the financial crisis, Barclays Plc raised 12 billion pounds ($15 billion), about half from Qatar, to avoid a collapse like Lehman Brothers or a bailout like Royal Bank of Scotland. It retained its independence, but a succession of investigations into misbehavior dating to those years has since bedeviled five chief executive officers. Now […]

Comparative analysis of Nigerian public debt

Businessam StaffJune 20, 2017

The public debt (total of both external and domestic debt) in Nigeria has been increasing over the last five years and the issue of the sustainability of the debt level has generated a lot of debate. A comparative analysis of the debt-to-Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of a number of countries show that the ratio of […]

Nigeria’s half-measures on currency are only half-working

Businessam StaffJune 20, 2017

A year after Nigeria scrapped a currency peg that sent foreign investors fleeing, it’s still battling to entice them back. But trying to placate investors by introducing multiple exchange rates isn’t going to work, bond funds and Wall Street lenders including Citigroup Inc. say. To end the dollar shortage that has hamstrung West Africa’s biggest economy and […]

Help for Africa – all talk and no action?

Businessam StaffJune 13, 2017

Germany’s Chancellor Angela Merkel is set to host African leaders ahead of the G20 summit. Berlin would like to see the G20 focusing more on Africa. Past initiatives for Africa have seen only moderate success.In 2005, then British Prime Minister Tony Blair hosted the G8 summit in the Scottish resort of Gleneagles. The meeting of […]

The Nigerian rice conversation and the nexus with food security

Businessam StaffJune 13, 2017

  The Rice debate in Nigeria is an intense and fierce one by different players who don’t understand the dynamics and only tend to put out emotional arguments not grounded on facts and logic but aim to score cheap political points. They try to play to the fact that self-sufficiency is a walk in the […]

Should you trust your own judgement when investing?

Businessam StaffJune 8, 2017

Most investors and dart players miss. But simple behavioural nudges can help improve our accuracy so that we’re more on target. Take economist Richard H. Thaler’s oft-cited example of the urinals at an Amsterdam airport: Patrons were making a mess. Their aim was off. Why? Maybe they were distracted, tired, or simply careless. They weren’t […]

London’s big bang banking hub pivots for post-Brexit reinvention

Businessam StaffJune 7, 2017

For 30 years, an army of UBS Group AG traders packed the football-field-sized floors of a building in the City of London’s largest office project. Now teams of laborers in high-visibility jackets are busily transforming the property for a different type of worker. Broadgate, a 32-acre (13-hectare) complex built to accommodate the banks and law […]

2017 budget: Springboard to ERGP implementation

Businessam StaffJune 6, 2017

The 2017 Appropriation Bill of N7.441 trillion budget passed by the National Assembly has come at a time when the current administration has merged the budgeting and planning functions into one ministry to create a better and stronger link between annual budgets and the Economic Recovery and Growth Plan. In this report, NIYI JACOBS, therefore examines the […]

Chinese investments in EU – indispensable yet worrisome

Businessam StaffJune 5, 2017

China has been a major investor in Europe over the past decade, pumping money to buy a number of strategic and high-tech assets. But Chinese investments have caused both exultation and trepidation. The European Union has been one of the most-favored investment destinations for China over the past decade, with Chinese firms channeling billions of […]