Grief has swept through the business and faith communities following the passing of Sir Innocent Chinedu Onuoha, the respected entrepreneur and Executive Chairman of InnoChris Group. He died peacefully in his sleep on December 11, 2025, at his home in Lagos. He was 71.

Born in 1954 in Umuoma Umuaro II Autonomous Community, Isiala Mbano Local Government Area of Imo State, Onuoha grew to become a symbol of enterprise, generosity, and unwavering faith. A devoted member and evangelist in the Anglican Communion, he lived a life that blended business success with service to God and humanity.

Long before many came to know his vast business interests, the name Innochris had already echoed in popular culture. In the 1990s, legendary Ogene music maestro Oliver De Coque famously chanted “Ugbo ndi oma Innochris eh!” in one of his songs — a line that celebrated the Onuoha brothers and helped make Sir Innocent Onuoha and his brother Christian Onugha widely known during that era.

Onuoha’s entrepreneurial journey began after years of professional experience working as secretary to a former Chief Engineer at Flour Mills of Nigeria. With determination and vision, he went on to establish InnoChris Group, a conglomerate that grew to include InnoChris Transport, InnoChris Computers, and InnoChris Spare Parts, serving customers across Nigeria.

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The Nigerian Naira maintained a steady performance against the US Dollar during early trading on Wednesday, February 25, 2026. Data from the Nigerian Foreign Exchange Market (NFEM) and informal sources indicate that the currency is benefiting from a period of lower volatility, supported by consistent policy measures from the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).

Official Market Performance (NFEM)

In the official window, the Naira was quoted at an opening rate of 1,351.13 per dollar. As the morning progressed, the rate experienced minor fluctuations, at one point touching 1,352.02 before retracing to 1,350.88 by 7:30 AM WAT. This reflects a stable trend compared to the closing rates observed at the start of the week.

The recent stability in the NFEM is largely attributed to the central bank’s ongoing strategy of maintaining a transparent price discovery mechanism. Authorized dealers report a healthy level of liquidity, which has prevented the sharp, unpredictable swings that characterized the market in previous years. The simple average or mean rate for the week continues to hover around the 1,348 mark, indicating a very narrow trading corridor.

Parallel Market Trends

The parallel market continues to shadow the official rate closely, with the US dollar being exchanged at rates ranging between 1,355 and 1,365 per dollar. The historically low spread between the official and “black market” rates—currently less than 1.5%—is a testament to the success of the current harmonization policies.

Traders in major financial hubs like Lagos and Kano note that while there is steady demand for small-scale retail transactions, the absence of massive speculative hoarding has kept the informal rate from breaking away from the official benchmark.

Key Economic Drivers

Several factors are influencing the Dollar-to-Naira pair this Wednesday:

Interest Rate Environment: The Monetary Policy Rate (MPR) currently stands at 26.50%, a high-yield environment that continues to attract foreign portfolio investment and encourages domestic savings in the local currency.

Inflationary Outlook: With January 2026 inflation recorded at 15.10%, the market is pricing in a “real rate” that is increasingly attractive to investors, providing a fundamental floor for the Naira.

Foreign Reserves: Robust external reserves, currently estimated at over 47 billion dollars, have given the CBN sufficient capacity to intervene and smooth out any temporary liquidity mismatches.

As the trading week continues, market analysts expect the Naira to remain within the 1,345 to 1,355 range in the official window, barring any unexpected shifts in global oil prices or major changes in the US Federal Reserve’s interest rate path.

The Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria, PENGASSAN, has given President Bola Tinubu conditions over the recent Executive Order, EO9, for remittance of oil and gas revenue to the Federation Account.

Speaking during an interview on Arise Television on Friday, the president of PENGASSAN, Festus Osifo, asked Tinubu to take back the Executive Order, set up a team, look at the PIA and identify where there are pros and cons.

Ekwutosblog reports that Tinubu signed an Executive Order, EO, to safeguard and enhance oil and gas revenues for the Federation.

The Executive Order also aims at curbing wasteful spending, eliminate duplicative structures in the critical sector of the national economy, and redirect resources for the benefit of the Nigerian people.

Meanwhile, PENGASSAN had called for continued stakeholder engagement following the Executive Order restructuring oil and gas revenue remittances.

Speaking during the interview, Osifo said, “You can review the law of the land. There’s no law that is perfect.

“We have heard in the last one year that the president was about to send an Executive Bill to the National Assembly to amend the PIA.
“That should be the direction. You don’t put the car before the horse. What the president should do is that take back the Executive Order, set up a team, look at the PIA, where there are pros and cons.

“And since you could amend the PIA, you take to the National Assembly and all the stakeholders will come there and make their inputs. That is how laws are refined. That is exactly what we want the president to do.

“The 2% that will be deducted from the NNPC by the President’s Executive Order is what the NNPC uses to say salaries.

“We all know that when revenue dries up in an organization, the first casualty is the workforce. The workers in NNPC today are an endangered species.”