|Economy|
FG approves $403m loans for Lagos, Rivers, Ogun, Osun: The Federal Executive Council on Wednesday approved the request of Lagos, Rivers, Ogun and Osun states to obtain foreign loans totalling about $403m, among other approvals. It also approved a $1.2bn multi-donor credit for the establishment of the proposed Development Bank of Nigeria. Other foreign loans totalling $295m were approved for developmental projects across the country. Source: Punch

Brent inches higher to $59: Brent crude rose marginally toward $59 a barrel on Wednesday, helped by better than expected Chinese factory activity data, the Federal Reserve’s flexible stance on United States interest rates and the Eurozone's approval of reforms proposed by Greece. US crude was weaker, however, after settling lower for the fifth consecutive session on Tuesday on the back of a bigger than expected crude stock build-up, according to upstreamonline.com. Brent added 22 cents to $58.88 a barrel in early trade, while US crude futures fell 2 cents to $49.26 a barrel. Source: Punch

Nigeria’s daily subsidy on fuel hits N1.5 billion: The Federal Government’s subsidy on a litre of fuel has increased from N15.82k it recorded one week ago to N30.05k at an exchange rate of N199 to a dollar as at Wednesday. With this latest development, the country’s subsidy on daily fuel consumption is about N1.5 billion at 38 million litre of fuel imports into the country. The country consumes about 40 million litre of fuel daily and the local refineries’ contribution to daily consumption is less than 20 per cent. With the expected open market price per a litre of Premium Motor Spirit put at N117.05 as of February 24, the subsidy on the product has increased to N30.05 per litre, according to data obtained from the Petroleum Products Pricing Regulatory Agency yesterday. Source: Guardian

Foreign reserves drop by $2.7bn in two months: Data obtained from the Central Bank of Nigeria on Wednesday showed that the nation’s foreign exchange reserves have declined by $2.68bn in less than two months to $31.79bn as of February 23, declining at a faster pace than what financial analysts had predicted. The current stock of external reserves revealed a drop of about eight per cent from the balance of $34.47bn recorded on December 31, 2014. Source: Punch

|Power|
Investors inject N300bn in electricity firms – BPE: Core investors have injected more than N300bn into the Power Holding Company of Nigeria’s successor electricity generation and distribution firms. The Director-General, BPE, Mr. Benjamin Dikki, pointed out that the investment was for the upgrade of power infrastructure, which had become obsolete over the decades, noting that new technologies were now evolving. He cited that, the Egbin Power Plant where the new owners had invested over N50bn to rehabilitate the Line 6 of the plant to generate extra 240 megawatts of electricity. Dikki revealed that, the cumulative effect of the investment was that power supply in Lagos and its environs would be greatly enhanced for the benefit of consumers. Source: Punch