Segun Agbaje is not a chief executive anyone would want to like in a hurry. You may first begin to quarrel with whether to classify him as a serious or non-serious professional but may then run into serious problems with either of the decisions when you have a chance of listening to him. The debonair managing director and chief executive of one of Nigeria's most respected banks tells you the facts in your face without any ill intention. He is straight to the point and wants to take that posture to the banking floors. Many people may have seen his usually very brash posture as arrogance but the result he has in his hands after just a year's stint at Guaranty Trust Bank (GTBank) may have created a rather new and positive picture .

Business in the nation's capital, Abuja, is at its lowest ebb as residents and workers in, and visitors to the city, have been engulfed by morbid fear of threats by the Boko Haram sect. BusinessWorld investigations reveal that occupancy rate of the big hotels in the city has declined drastically as guests dread going close to them, while some staff of ministries, departments and agencies now avoid their offices like a plague.

David Mark

Since 1999, Nigerian's National Assembly (NASS) has made remarkable efforts in sponsoring and passing bills that have encouraged the development trends of the country in many ways. Among the about fifteen bills that have been passed by NASS in the last thirteen years of our new democracy, over 75 per cent have the capacity of adding value to economic growth and development if fully implemented.

Nigeria is essentially an agrarian economy despite the growing importance of oil which was discovered in the country in 1951. Consequently, agriculture has continued to contribute significantly to the Gross Domestic Product (GDP), total exports and providing employment for about 70 per cent of its labour force.

It is about 120 days and 120 nights since the Asset Management Corporation of Nigeria (Amcon) paid the Nigeria Deposit Insurance Corporation (NDIC) to acquire the shares of three bridge banks-Mainstreet, Enterprise and Keystone. It was a very confusing pronouncement whose content kept analysts guessing for a good number of days. What made everything more confusing was the speed at which two principal issues were handled within a spate of five hours.

The over 3,000 staff of Mainstret Bank Limited (formerly Afribank Nigeria Plc), have been gripped by extreme anxiety in the last one week as the deadline given to them by the new management to shape in or ship out is fast approaching. There is increased tension in all the branches of the bank as the workers appears caught in the cross fire of resignation and termination of their appointments.

One of the globally acclaimed systems solution company, Misys has indicated that it has all the potentials to assist greatly to the growth of the Nigerian financial sector through the provision of robust information technology platform.

Depositors of Savannah Bank Plc and Societe Generale Bank of Nigeria Plc whose funds were trapped in these  banks for over seven years now may get some respite soon, as an integrated action by the Nigeria Deposit Insurance Corporation (NDIC) may favour a possible roll-out for banking operations by the bank very soon.