Shell-funded impact investment company, All On, has announced a $500,000 investment in Greenage Technologies Power Systems Limited to fund the construction and expansion of its charge controller and inverter manufacturing facility in Enugu State in South-Eastern Nigeria.
“We’re delighted to receive this support from All On that will reduce the cost of solar energy components through local manufacturing,” said Mrs Ogechukwu Uchechukwu, co-founder and Head of Business Development, Greenage Technologies.
“This investment will help Greenage realize its aim of becoming Africa’s largest solar electronics manufacturer by doubling its existing manufacturing capacity for inverters, charge controllers, and the possibility to assemble lithium-ion batteries.”
The investment, which is a mix of equity and convertible debt, will enable Greenage to expand its manufacturing business through the acquisition and development of a new factory.
It will also fund its working capital needs – enabling it to meet the increasing demand for locally manufactured solar systems components.
“We are proud to close another transaction to enhance the localization of the solar supply chain,” said All On CEO, Mr Wiebe Boer.
“Through this investment, All On is lowering the proportion of solar components imported into Nigeria. This investment is at the core of our commitment to investing in youth-driven Nigerian companies like Greenage to accelerate the sector’s growth and contribute to closing the energy access gap.”
Greenage was a USADF/All On Off-Grid Energy Challenge winner in 2018, receiving $100,000 to fund the installation of solar systems in over 40 households and businesses.
This additional funding, the company says is an indication of All On’s growing confidence in its vision to play an increasingly important role within the Nigerian renewable energy value chain as a manufacturer of solar energy system components.
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Adedapo Adesanya is a journalist, polymath, and connoisseur of everything art. When he is not writing, he has his nose buried in one of the many books or articles he has bookmarked or simply listening to good music with a bottle of beer or wine. He supports the greatest club in the world, Manchester United F.C.
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Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu of Lagos State has advised the federal government to intensify its efforts to scale up Nigeria’s exports in order to address the scarcity of foreign exchange (forex) in the country.
Speaking on Thursday at the RT 200 Non-Oil Export Summit organised by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) in Lagos, Mr Sanwo-Olu said the country has enough resources to take to other nations for FX earnings.
According to him, Nigeria should shift its attention from oil and gas and focus on agricultural produce, solid minerals, chemical products, furniture and clothing as well as tourism among others, noting that a situation in which the energy sector consistently accounts for the bulk of government revenues and forex earnings was not ideal.
At the event themed Setting the Roadmap toward achieving RT200 and non-oil export for development, the Governor emphasised that, “We can do a lot to strengthen the Naira and our external reserves by focusing on our non-oil exports. This diversification also gives us immunity from the severe shock of depending on a limited pool of exports.”
He commended the apex bank for coming up with the $200 billion FX Scheme (RT200), an initiative aimed to generate about $200 billion in FX earnings, specifically from non-oil sources, over the next few years.
“I am aware that, so far, the central bank has approved the payment of billions of Naira to more than 100 exporters who have taken advantage of the scheme and have scaled up their non-oil exports of finished and
semi-finished goods in line with it.
“I have no doubt that this scheme will go from strength to strength, and deliver to an extent beyond the expectations of the Central Bank and the Nigerian economy. I urge exporters to readily take advantage of it. I also urge the central bank to continue to finetune and strengthen this process, while also thinking of new and innovative initiatives that will achieve similar outcomes,” Governor Sanwo-Olu said.
He used the occasion to inform the guests that his administration is making efforts to improve the “state of transportation infrastructure, to enable imports and exports, and generally bring down the cost of doing business.”
“When goods for export get stuck on the roads and can’t make it to the ports, we have a big problem on our hands. There is a big price that the economy pays for these dysfunctions, at all levels – from the small and
large businesses whose goods are being exported to the people in the business of exports, to the users of our roads who have to waste valuable time in traffic because of worsening gridlock.
“It is, therefore, our responsibility, as governments, to ensure that we make the business of exporting (and also importing) as seamless as possible. Nigeria has so much potential to scale up its exports, shifting from over-dependence on oil and gas to agricultural produce, solid minerals, chemical products, furniture, clothing, and so on,” he submitted, stressing that “a country in need of foreign exchange has no business downplaying the importance of exports.”
The Nigerian Exchange (NGX) Limited suffered one of its heaviest losses in recent times on Friday as it depreciated by 1.21 per cent as banking equities struggled to get patronage.
Yesterday, holders of stocks in the banking sector, especially those desperate to liquidate their holdings, lowered their prices to attract buyers but this strategy did not work as investors remain cautious of the macroeconomic environment and are limiting their exposure to the equity market.
The absence of a positive trigger weakened the All Share Index (ASI) by 633.01 points during the session to 51,778.08 points to 52,411.09 points and depleted the market capitalisation by N341 billion to N27.914 trillion from N28.255 trillion.
Business Post reports that the loss was across the main sectors of the exchange, with the banking counter the most hit as it fell by 2.31 per cent, followed by the consumer goods index, which dropped 0.64 per cent. The energy space lost 0.58 per cent, the insurance index went down by 0.24 per cent, while the industrial goods landscape declined by 0.01 per cent.
Only 10 equities gained points on the last trading day of the week as 24 stocks shed weight, with McNichols as the worst hit after its value went down by 9.76 per cent to N1.85.
Ardova lost 9.70 per cent to settle at N13.50, Livestock Feeds depreciated by 9.52 per cent to N1.33, International Breweries shed 9.42 per cent to sell for N6.25, while Courteville retreated by 9.26 per cent to 49 kobo.
Conversely, Ellah Lakes topped the gainers’ log with a price appreciation of 8.40 per cent to quote at N4.00, UAC Nigeria chalked up 6.48 per cent to trade at N11.50, Livingtrust Mortgage Bank appreciated by 5.26 per cent to N1.20, Mutual Benefits Assurance rose by 4.17 per cent to 25 kobo, while Fidelity Bank added 3.37 per cent to its value to sell for N3.37.
Jaiz Bank ended the session as the most traded stock with 40.7 million units sold for N37.2 million. UBA exchanged 35.7 million units for N269.4 million, Zenith Bank traded 33.2 million units worth N719.0 million, GTCO transacted 16.8 million units valued at N359.7 million, while Transcorp traded 10.9 million units valued at N14.0 million.
At the close of business, investors bought and sold 241.2 million shares worth N3.7 billion in 5,043 deals compared with the 211.6 million shares worth N2.4 billion transacted in 4,750 deals a day earlier, indicating an increase in the trading volume, value and number of deals by 13.98 per cent, 54.96 per cent and 6.17 per cent respectively.
On the last trading session of the week, the NASD Over-the-Counter (OTC) Securities Exchange closed in the negative region following the marginal 0.01 per cent loss it posted when trading activities were brought to an end.
This chipped off N130 million from the total value of the unlisted stock exchange yesterday to N1.006 trillion from N1.006 trillion and trimmed the NASD Unlisted Securities Index (NSI) by 0.1 points to wrap the session at 794.41 points compared with 794.51 points recorded in the previous session.
Business Post reports that the loss was triggered by the decline in the price of Capital Bancorp Plc by 17 kobo or 5.67 per cent to settle at N2.83 per unit in contrast to the previous day’s N3.00 per unit.
During the trading day, there was a slump in the volume of securities traded by 41.4 per cent as investors transacted 1.9 million units compared with the 3.2 million units traded in the preceding session.
In the same vein, there was a decline in the value of shares bought and sold by investors by 71.5 per cent to N7.3 million compared with the N21.0 million of the previous day.
However, the number of trades during the session increased by 180 per cent to 14 deals from the five deals carried out on Thursday.
Like in the preceding session, AG Mortgage Bank Plc was the most active stock by volume on a year-to-date basis with the sale of 2.3 billion units worth N1.2 billion, followed by Central Securities Clearing System (CSCS) Plc with 673.5 million units worth N14.1 billion, Food Concepts Plc with 146.0 million units valued at N126.7 million.
The most active stock by value on a year-to-date basis was still CSCS Plc with 673.5 million units exchanged for N14.1 billion, trailed by VFD Group with 9.6 million units worth N3.0 billion, and FrieslandCampina WAMCO Nigeria Plc with 9.6 billion units valued at N1.2 billion.