The Chairman of the Nigerian Exchange Group (NGX Group), Dr. Umaru Kwairanga confirmed that Dangote Petrochemicals has applied for regulatory approval and could be listed before the end of this month.

He said that the upcoming listing of Dangote Petrochemicals on the Nigerian Exchange (NGX) is expected to strengthen the stock market.

He emphasized that the listing is expected to attract significant investment, increase market capitalization, and enhance the overall performance of the NGX.

He noted that by bringing one of Africa’s largest petrochemical companies to the stock market, the listing is poised to boost investor confidence and drive growth in the Nigerian capital market.

“Dangote Refinery has already applied for their petrochemical listing, and we are working to ensure their inclusion before the end of the second quarter,” Kwairanga stated.

Nigeria’s Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is warning the investing public against investing in the cryptocurrency known as Punisher Coin or $PUN.

In a statement , SEC said that the promoters of the cryptocurrency are not registered to operate in any capacity within the Nigerian capital market.

The Commission added that the promoters were engaging in unauthorized presale and acting without regulatory approval.

SEC stated that it was disturbed several online publications blatantly advertising unauthorized presale of “Punisher Coin”, also known as “$PUN”, citing a newspaper’s report titled: “Cryptos to Buy: Why Punisher Coin Could Join Avalanche and Chainlink as a Top Investment Pick”

“The Commission hereby informs the public that neither “PUNISHER COIN” aka“$PUN” nor its promoters have been vetted nor registered by the Commission to either promote, launch, sale, trade or solicit investments from the Nigerian public,” SEC stated.

Further investigation has revealed that Punisher coin or $PUN is a Meme coin. Meme coins generally have no use case, intrinsic value or tangible projects backing them.

Any attributed value to meme coin is usually linked to its promoters or the community effort which most often than not are susceptible to pump and dump schemes-a form of fraudulent activity that involves promoters spreading false or misleading information to create a buying frenzy that “pumps” up the price of a ‘coin’ and then “dumps” the coin by selling their own coins at the inflated price.

Once the promoters dump their coins and stop hyping the coin, the coin price typically falls and investors lose money,” SEC noted.

The telecom operators in Nigeria, including MTN Nigeria, Airtel, Globacom and 9Mobile have threatened to withdraw network support for banks’ Unstructured Supplementary Services Data, USSD.

This follows what they described as gross misinformation of subscribers on the mode of deduction for transaction fees.

USSD, commonly known as ‘bank transfers’, is done through shortcodes on mobile phones.

Yesterday, the banks issued a notice to their customers that the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) has directed them to stop deducting charges for USSD transactions directly from customers’ accounts, and that telecoms will now deduct charges from users’ mobile airtime.

The notice from the banks read in part:

“In line with the directive of the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), please be informed that effective June 3, 2025, charges for USSD banking services will no longer be deducted from your bank account.

Going forward, these charges will be deducted directly from your mobile airtime balance in accordance with the NCC’s End-User Billing (EUB) model.

“Under this new billing structure, each USSD session will attract a charge of ?6.98 per 120 seconds, which will be billed by your mobile network operator.

“You will receive a consent prompt at the start of each session, and airtime will only be deducted upon your confirmation and availability of the bank to fulfil this service.

“If you do not wish to continue using USSD banking under this new model, you may choose to discontinue use of the USSD channel.”

However, in a swift reaction, the telcos under their umbrella body, the Association of Licensed Telecom Operators of Nigeria, ALTON said the banks’ notice is a gross misinformation deliberately hatched to suit their selfish interests.

Hence they threatened to withdraw network support to the banks’ USSD services.

Chairman of ALTON Engr Gbenga Adebayo told Vanguard: ” I don’t understand why the banks are twisting agreements and distorting information just to favour their selfish interests.

In the first place, the information wasn’t a directive from the NCC but a joint regulatory agreement between the NCC and the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN witnessed by the telcos and the banks.

The agreement was that if the banks finally cleared all USSD debts owed to the telcos by June 2, 2025, they would be free to migrate to the end-user billing method, so long as the model of migration is transparent and agreed upon by the telcos.

Source: Vanguard