The CBN board met yesterday to discuss the continuing devaluation of the Naira. The Naira had fallen so much that it was trading for N160 to a dollar. Some of the steps to be taken include: 1. Specifically, Soludo said operations of Bureaux de Change (BDCs) would be streamlined to reflect what is obtainable worldwide.2. Besides, all the loose ends in foreign exchange market would be plugged with proper documentation that would require reasons for requests for foreign exchange by banks on behalf of their customers.

The Lagos State Government has launched a N275 billion bond to finance activities for the year. You can download the application form below:[Download not found]Some details of the bond are as follows: Maturity Date: 2013 Fixed rate 13% coupon i.e. N130 per N1000 in principal amount Mininum of N100,000 subscritption and N10,000 thereafter Proceeds to be used to finance ongoing infrastructure projects and refinance loans on ongoing infrastructure projects.

Scary, the NSE lost over N5trillion between March and December 2008. While this is worrying, I think this was something that had to happen. A lot of the stocks had become irrationally priced and a market correction was necessary. Read the report from Vanguard Newspapers below:The Nigerian stock mar ket in the financial year 2008 lost over N5 trillion between March and December 2008 as a result of the world financial crisis.

The Vanguard Newspapers reports today that the NSE has announced that they will be launching 5 new trading indices. They are: NSE 30 index NSE Banking 10 Index NSE Insurance 10 Index NSE Food/Beverage 10 Index NSE OIL/Gas 5 IndexTo be fair, this does not really matter.

Here is the stock market report for the week ended January 9th, 2009:Stocks Trade Low, but Market Closed High FridayEquities trading on the floor of the Nigerian stock Exchange from Monday through Thursday experienced no significant spike nor gathered any upbeat momentum. Index plummeted daily with a mean loss of 2.20 percent save Friday which witnessed a little rally as some stocks like FIRSTBANK, DANGSUGAR, DIAMONDBNK, ACCESS, SOVREGNINS and GUARANTY went on bid tossing the NSE ASI upwards by 0.61 percent to halt at 28,866.80 points for the week.

Ben Okolo had a very instructive essay in Nigeriaworld about the effect of the oil price crash on Nigeria: THE OIL PRICE CRASH: A TIME OF AWAKENING FOR NIGERIA by Ben OkoloEarlier in 2008 and up to the last quarter of the year, the price of crude oil was at its all time high. Then suddenly, as if the plugs were pulled off, the price started crashing like a pack of cards.