- Pencom pays N356bn pension to relatives of 91,214 dead workers
- NGX ASI dips by 0.66% as equities investors lose N258.85bn
BY FESTUS OKOROMADU, ABUJA
Nigeria’s export value surged by 60.78 per cent quarter-on-quarter to N10.35trn in the third quarter of 2023.
This is as total foreign trade rose to N18.80trn according to the National Bureau of Statistics ‘Foreign Trade in Goods Statistics (Q3 2023),’ report.
It said, “Nigeria’s total trade in the third quarter of 2023 stood at N18.80trn.
Exports were valued at N10.35trn while total imports stood at N8.46trn.
Total exports increased by 60.78 per cent compared to the amount recorded in the second quarter of 2023 (N6.44trn) as well as by 74.36 per cent compared to the corresponding quarter in 2022 (N5.93 trn).
“Similarly, total imports increased by 47.70 per cent compared to the value recorded in the second quarter of 2023 (N5.73trn) and by 33.33 per cent when compared to the value recorded in the corresponding quarter of 2022 (N6.34trn).”
The statistics body attributed the significant rise in exports and imports in Q3, 2023 to the increase in trade activities within the period. Spain, India, The Netherlands, Indonesia, and France recorded the highest exports from Nigeria.
The country imported most from China, Belgium, India, Malta, and the United States of America.
Pencom pays N356bn pension to relatives of 91,214 dead workers
Meanwhile, no fewer than 91,214 relatives of dead workers under the Contributory Pension Scheme have got N356.32bn pension settlement.
The National Pension Commission revealed this in its second-quarter report on approval of death benefits.
It stated that 92,752 requests were submitted, but it rejected 1,528 from the inception of the scheme till the end of the second quarter of 2023.
Among those approved, 59,058 were under Federal Government service, 9,246 under state governments, while 22,910 were under the private sector.
In the second quarter alone, it stated that “A total of 2,049 beneficiaries requested the death benefits of deceased employees/retirees. Out of that, 2,042 requests were approved, while seven were rejected due to incorrect documentation.
“Out of the 2,042 death benefit requests approved, 653 were from the private sector, while the remaining 1,389 were from the public sector. A total of N12.2bn was approved for the 2,042 beneficiaries.”
Under PenCom’s revised regulation on the administration of retirement and terminal benefits, to process death benefits, the legal beneficiaries of the deceased person must submit relevant documents to the Pension Fund Administrators, including a completed death notification form.
It added that the person must submit a letter of administration and the beneficiary must hand in signature verification letter issued by the banker to the legal beneficiaries/estate of the deceased; evidence of death, which should be either certificate of death issued by PenCom (where death occurs at home), and any one of some documents.
NGX ASI dips by 0.66% as equities investors lose N258.85bn
Also, the bears gained dominance at the Nigerian equity market on Monday to commence the week on a negative note.
The benchmark index, the NGX All Share Index declined by 0.66 percent closing at 70,946.83 points contrary to previous session’s gain of 0.08 percent to close at 71,419.87 basis points.
As a result, the year-to-date gain of the index slipped to 38.43 percent, as investors saw a total sum of N258.9 billion wiped off their pocket, dragging down the market capitalization to N28.82 trillion.
Notably, stocks such as BUACEMENT (-10.00 percent), MCNICHOLS (-9.33 percent), CWG(-7.50 percent), MBENEFIT (-7.14 percent) and UPDC (-7.14 percent) contributed to Monday’s losses as their share prices experienced significant downward movements, although the exchange recorded a higher number of gainers (33), as against the losers (26).
Across the sectors, performance was predominantly in the bearish region as three out of the five sectors tracked, closed in the red zone.
The Insurance, Oil/Gas and Industrial Goods indexes recorded losses of 0.28 percent, 0.01 percent and 4.21 percent, respectively, while the Banking and Consumer Goods sectors advanced by 0.01 percent and 0.06 percent.
Market activity reflected the negative sentiment of investors as the total traded volume and value declined by 0.72 percent and 30.56 percent to 358.53 million units, valued at N7.1 billion.
However, the total deals for the day increased by 14.06 percent to 6,433 deals.
UNIVINSURE emerged as the most actively traded security in terms of volume, with 58.85 million units worth N16.9 million, changing hands in 80 deals; while AIRTELAFRI was the most traded in terms of value, amounting to N3.27 billion.
