…As CBN empowers 1.1m farmers through anchor borrowers’ programme***

The crucial market indicators of the Nigerian Stock Exchange rebounded on Thursday after three consecutive days loss following Nestle and Seplat price rallies, inching market capitalisation by N145 billion or 1.09 per cent, to close at N13.426 trillion against N13.281 trillion recorded on Wednesday.

Similarly, the All-Share Index grew by 296.80 points or 1.90 per cent to close at 27,579.85 compared with 27,283.05 achieved on Wednesday.

The upturn was impacted by gains recorded in medium and large capitalised stocks, amongst which are; Nestle Nigeria, Seplat, Total, Access Bank and Eterna.

Analysts at Afrinvest Limited stated that “In the absence of any major stimulus, we expect a bearish performance for the rest of the week.

“Nonetheless, we see opportunities for bargain hunting in stocks with sound fundamentals.”

The market breadth closed positively with 16 gainers and seven losers.

Nestle, Seplat and Total led the gainers’ table in percentage terms, appreciating by 10 per cent each, to close at N1,336.50, N506 and N110 per share, respectively.

Continental Reinsurance followed with a gain 9.88 per cent to close at N1.89, while Cornerstone Insurance and NEM Insurance appreciated by 9.52 per cent each, to close at 46k and N2.30 per share, respectively.

Conversely, Forte Oil led the losers’ chart with a loss of 6.78 per cent to close at N15.80 per share.

Honeywell came second with a decline of 5.94 per cent to close at 95k, while Custodian and Allied lost 4.76 per cent to close at N6 per share.

Also read:  Downhill: NSE moves 462.31m shares worth N7.92bn in negative trading

Chams declined by 4.17 per cent to close at 23k, while Fidelity Bank shed 1.19 per cent to close at N1.66 per share.

In spite of the growth in market indices, the volume of shares closed lower as investors bought and sold 183.47 million shares worth N2.93 billion traded in 2,576 deals.

This was in contrast with an exchange of 462.31 million shares valued at N7.92 billion achieved in 2,895 deals on Wednesday.

Transactions in the shares of Access Bank topped the activity chart with a total of 67.32 million shares valued at N509.83 million.

Guaranty Trust Bank trailed with 23.16 million shares worth N651.7 million, while Transcorp traded 14.08 million shares valued at N14.29 million.

Lafarge Africa sold 10.43 million shares worth N156.63 million, while FBN Holdings transacted 8.73 million shares valued at N47.94 million.

In the meantime, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) says 1,140,854 farmers have participated in the production of 17 different agricultural products under its Anchor Borrowers Programme (ABP)

The bank’s Director, Corporate Communications Department, Mr. Isaac Okorafor, disclosed this at CBN’s ‘special day’ at Abuja International Trade Fair on Thursday.

He was represented by the Deputy Director in the Corporate Communications Department of the Bank and Head of the Public Relations Division, Mrs. Veronica Aqua, at the event.

Okorafor said the figure was compiled since the inception of the project in 2015 to June 2019.

He said that 255 private groups and 14 state governments had participated in the scheme as at June this year.

The director also disclosed that 1,132,260 jobs along the various agricultural value chains had been created under its Commercial Agricultural Credit Scheme (CACS).

He said the bank commenced the scheme in 2009 to fast-track the development of the agricultural sector.

Okorafor said that the apex bank was aware of the role of the youth group in the overall development of the economy, hence inaugurated the Youth Entrepreneurship Development Programme (YEDP) to facilitate an improved access to finance by young people.

He said that this would help develop their entrepreneurial skills, stimulate job creation through the development of Small and Medium Enterprises among youths to harness entrepreneurial capacity as well as increase the contribution of the non oil sector to GDP.

According to him, CBN has collaborated with the Bankers Committee to institute the Agric-business Small and Medium Enterprises Scheme (AGSMEIS) to create employment opportunities and boost the managerial capacity of agric-businesses.

“The CBN and Bankers Committee equally set up the Creative Industry Financing Initiative (CIFI) to improve access to long-term, low-interest financing by entrepreneurs and investors in the industry.

“The bank did the same thing in Information Technology sub sectors to boost job creation in the country, especially among the youth.

“CBN has intervened in 29 various programmes targeted at the different stakeholder groups,” he said.