Guaranty Trust Bank Plc has reaffirmed its position as a leading global brand with its recent recognition as the ‘Bank of the Year’ during the 2015 Banker Awards held in London, United Kingdom.
The Banker, a publication of the Financial Times, is the world’s leading monthly journal of records for the banking Industry, with over 90 years expertise in publishing development in the banking industry both Africa and on the global scale.
The Banker Awards is regarded as the industry standard for banking excellence, recognizing and celebrating the achievements of individuals and financial institutions within the global banking sector.
According to Brian Caplen, Editor of The Banker Magazine: “The banking and financial services industry continues to develop rapidly, with a few financial institutions cementing their positions as market leaders, pushing the boundaries of innovation and excellence. GTBank has over the years maintained a reputation for delivering notable financial success hinged on world class corporate governance standards and excellent service delivery.”
Receiving the award on behalf of the bank, Managing Director and CEO of GTBank Segun Agbaje, said, “We are delighted and proud to be recognized as the 2015 Bank of the Year. Our vision has always been to create an oasis and an African institution that can operate anywhere in the world. We strive to achieve this by adopting global best practices in all our business processes while conducting ourselves in a manner required of an institution with high corporate governance standards.”

Oil prices are not likely to rebound anytime soon, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) predicted at the weekend, casting a shadow over the prospects of countries like Nigeria which depend on oil exports for the bulk of their forex earnings.
In a report published on its website, the Fund stated that fossil fuel prices are likely to stay “low for long”, adding that notwithstanding important recent progress in developing renewable fuel sources, low fossil fuel prices could discourage further innovation in and adoption of cleaner energy technologies.
According to the report, “Oil prices have dropped by over 60 per cent since June 2014. A commonly held view in the oil industry is that ‘the best cure for low oil prices is low oil prices.’
The reasoning behind this adage is that low oil prices discourage investment in new production capacity, eventually shifting the oil supply curve backward and bringing prices back up as existing oil fields— which can be tapped at relatively low marginal cost— are depleted.
In fact, in line with past experience, capital expenditure in the oil sector has dropped sharply in many producing countries, including the United States.
The dynamic adjustment to low oil prices may, however, be different this time around.” The report noted that the advent of shale oil production has added about 4.2 million barrels per day to the crude oil market, contributing to a global supply glut.
It predicted that shale oil will lead to shorter and more limited oil-price cycles, pointing out that shale requires a lower level of sunk costs than conventional oil, and the lag between first investment and production is much shorter.
The report also stated that other factors such as the projected increase in Iranian exports, the scaling down of global demand (especially from emerging markets), the secular drop in petroleum consumption in the United States, and some displacement of oil by substitutes and the change in the strategic behavior of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), are putting downward pressure on oil prices.
“These likely persistent forces, like the growth of shale, point to a ‘low for long’ scenario, even after the supply legacy left by the high-price era of the 2000s has dissipated. Futures markets, which show only a modest recovery of prices to around $60 a barrel by 2019, support this view”, the report stated. In addition, the report noted that natural gas and coal—also fossil fuels— have similarly seen price declines that look to be long-lived.
According to the report, “coal and natural gas are mainly inputs to electricity generation, whereas oil is used mostly to power transporta-tion, yet the prices of all these energy sources are linked, including through oil-indexed contract prices. The North American shale gas boom has resulted in record low prices there.
The recent discovery of the giant Zohr gas field off the Egyptian coast will eventually have repercussions on pricing in the Mediterranean region and Europe, and there is significant development potential in many other locales, notably Argentina.
-newtelegraph

The fuel crisis took a dramatic turn for the worse, yesterday, as massive queues were seen in almost all the petrol stations selling the products in Abuja.
Also, some oil marketers, who spoke to Vanguard, blamed the prolonged scarcity  on the insincerity of the Federal Government and called on Nigerians to expect a further worsening of the situation in the days ahead.
This was after a slight improvement was recorded few days after the Senate approved the supplementary budget which was to be used mainly for payments of subsidy claims to oil marketers.
Specifically, over the weekend, light queues were recorded in some petrol stations in Abuja, while most of the petrol station did not record any queue. But the situation worsened, yesterday, as the queues returned with only a few petrol stations in town selling the product
Some marketers who spoke to Vanguard  blamed the renewed intensity of the crisis on the fact that they are yet to receive payments for their subsidy claims, a situation that had made it difficult for them to purchase the product.
Specifically, one of the marketers, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, wondered what is delaying the payment of the claims, while he accused the Federal Government of not showing concern for the plight of Nigerians.
The marketer disclosed that Nigerians should expect tougher days ahead, stating that if the subsidy claims are eventually paid, it would take days for oil marketers to access the funds, place order for the products, get the consignment and start distributing the products to all the nooks and crannies of the country.
He said: “Nigerians should hold the Federal Government responsible for the sufferings they are currently passing through. This government was aware of outstanding subsidy claims from their first day in office, but they had to wait for six months, until Nigerians could no longer bear the suffering in silence, before they took any action.
However,  the Senate Committee on Petroleum (Downstream) said it will engage the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, to fast track the availability of foreign exchange to enable marketers import petroleum products, so as to ease off the continuing scarcity.
The Committee Chairman, Uche Ekwunife, stated this during the committee’s visit to depots in Apapa, Lagos. Her pronouncement came as marketers said that bad roads and infrastructural decay have continued to hamper their movement from the depots to different parts of the country.
“We will make sure the relevant agencies do the needful to enable marketers get the issuance on time so as make logistic arrangement for importation of the products. As for foreign exchange, we have to engage the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, to fast track the availability of foreign exchange. The CBN should us why the marketers will not have access to import the product as at when due,” she said.