Business

Freight train service deepens China-Europe cooperation amid pandemic

Published

5 years ago

July 3, 2020

John Okeke

On June 29, a Yiwu-Madrid express train carrying 70 TEU containers of pandemic prevention materials arrived in Madrid, Spain. The goods, including 25.05 million masks and 400,000 sets of protective clothing, weighed 257 tons.

“These materials are very valuable. They support us in strengthening epidemic prevention and control and create a safe environment for resumption of production,” said the Spanish manager of DSV, a Danish transport and logistics company.

Spain has a rising demand for pandemic prevention materials, and the China-Europe freight train service has obvious advantages in material transportation. It is reliable and convenient, he added.

Wu Haitao, the Chinese ambassador to Spain, said the Yiwu-Madrid express train carrying medical materials is a living proof of international anti-coronavirus cooperation.

Since the COVID-19 outbreak, the freight trains have been playing a crucial role in supporting Europe’s anti-pandemic fight by opening “green passages” for the transport of important supplies and raw materials.

Over the course of the first six months of the year, freight trains have made a total of 294 trips along the Yiwu-Madrid line, carrying 24,466 TEU containers, up 117.1 percent year-on-year.

Carlos Santana, who is responsible for the company operating the Yiwu-Madrid line in Spain, said that railway transport has been proven to be a bridge of strengthening anti-pandemic cooperation, while deepening friendship between the two countries.

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Business

TAJBank Emerges Nigeria’s Biggest Non-Interest Bank

Published

2 weeks ago

October 23, 2025

The Gleamer

Cyril Ogar

After five years of operations in Nigeria’s rapidly evolving non-interest banking (NIB) space, TAJBank Limited has become the biggest player in the NIB subsector based on its total assets and gross earnings values.

Disclosing this during his paper presentation on the key performance indices in the non-interest banking space over the past few years at a seminar organized by Leaders Corporate Services with the theme “Roles of Non-Interest Banks In SMEs’ Financing” for SME entrepreneurs yesterday in Abuja, an investment expert, Mr. Olabode Akeredolu-Ale, maintained that based on the non-interest banks’ approved financial statements for the half year 2025, TAJBank currently remained the biggest in terms of its total assets.

The expert, a chartered stockbroker, specifically confirmed that his recent investment researches on the NIBs and their financial performances showed that TAJBank, with its total assets rising to N1.017 trillion in half year 2025 up from N953.098 billion as of December 2024, which is about N53 billion higher than the nearest NIB’s assets, now ranked top in the banking subsector.

According to him, TAJBank’s gross earnings for H1 2025 also surged to N53.752 billion from N32.86 billion as of December 2024, representing a 64% growth, and higher than the nearest NIB’s gross earnings in the period under review.

This is even as he disclosed that on the NIBs’ earnings per share during the half year, TAJBank reported N61.36 kobo earnings per share, about 92% higher than the earnings per share of the next NIB during the period.

Akeredolu-Ale, who is also a chartered accountant, clarified: “The figures I am reeling out here on the NIBs are sourced from the banking and capital market regulatory institutions’ platforms, which anyone can access to verify.

“I am part of this event because of my research interest in non-interest banking and how the players in the subsector in Nigeria can help to leverage their competencies in innovation and ethical banking to support our MSMEs.

“Today, the MSMEs cannot access DMBs’ loans due to high lending rates and other inclement macroeconomic factors. This is where I think the NIBs have become very crucial to Nigeria’s economic growth.

“Overall, my findings on the NIBs indicated that they are all trying their best with non-interest loans to support entrepreneurs, particularly the MSMEs owners. I have advised those of them at this seminar to explore the cost-friendly financing options of the NIBs to grow their businesses by opening accounts with the NIBs”, the expert added.

Another speaker at the event, Benjamin Chukwudi, also commended the NIBs for their “catalytic roles in helping SMEs to access interest-free loans and providing them the needed financial management advisory, which have been helping them in sustaining their operations in the face of rising cost of doing business in the country.”

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