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BUSINESS ROUNDUP: Bitcoin crashes amid Russia, Ukraine war; FAAC distributes N574.7bn to three tiers of govt; Other stories

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Private sector got over N46trn in loans from banks in 9 months –NBS

Hello, and welcome to Business Roundup this week. Here, we bring you highlights of events that happened during the week -from the capital market to the mainstream business activities, while not forgetting the tech/economy build up.

Here are the Headlines:

  • Criminal crypto whales hold $25bn, Russia among fraudsters’ locations
  • Bitcoin crashes as investors favour Gold amid Russia, Ukraine war
  • IMF wants Nigerian govt to shut down companies in debt
  • FAAC distributes N574.7bn to Nigerian govt, states, LGs

Summary:

The Federation Accounts Allocation Committee (FAAC) has distributed the total sum of N574.7 billion to the three tiers of government to be able to sort their various financial needs, including payment of salaries of workers for the month of February.

According to a communique from FAAC, the N574.668 billion which is the revenue generated in January 2022 comprised distributable statutory revenue of N291.400 billion, distributable Value Added Tax (VAT) revenue of N178.066 billion, exchange gain of N5.202 billion and non-mineral revenue of N100.000 billion.

From the N574.7 billion, the federal government got N204.580 billion, the state governments received N179.251 billion and the local government councils got N131.878 billion, while the relevant states shared N58.959 billion as 13 per cent derivation revenue.

Russia is one of the locations where cryptocurrency criminal activities are performed, as blockchain data platform, Chainalysis, states that over $25 billion illicit crypto funds are held globally.

Chainalysis stated in a report on criminal-related digital currency, that the $25 billion crypto funds are held by 4,068 criminal whales, which are wallets with cryproassets worth $1 million or more, with illicit addresses accounting for 10% of its funding.

The report noted that criminal activities in the cryptocurrency market was rising, recording 266.67% increase in criminal balances in 2021, when criminals held digital currency valued at $11 billion.

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine’s territory is favouring Gold, while dragging bitcoin down, as investors’ confidence dropped in the cryptocurrency market, but rose in the traditional asset.

In the early hours of Thursday, the price of Gold ounce hit its highest value this year, with investors trading at $1,949.80. This put the asset’s year-to-date growth at +8.23%.

Gold gained $148.4 within one month and 24 days, having taken the backseat in the last two years following the bullish run of bitcoin since the outbreak of COVID-19 two years ago.

Read also: BUSINESS ROUNDUP: Fuel scarcity bites, as NNPC begs; Bitcoin investors lose N33.79tr in 4 days; Other stories

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has urged the Nigerian government and other nations to liquidate companies that are too weak to survive the debt they piled up due to COVID-19 outbreak.

IMF said government’s financial support should be more focused as central banks across the world begin to withdraw their fiscal support meant to cushion the negative effect of COVID-19 on business operations.

In a statement received by Ripples Nigeria on Wednesday, the global creditor said debt owed by Corporate organisations across the world rose to $83 trillion in 2020, recording $8.9 trillion increase in same year.

On NSE ROUNDUP: FCMB, Transcorp lead trading as shareholders gain N30.3bn

Investors at the Nigerian capital pocketed N30.38 billion following the rise in equity capitalization by 0.11 at the close of trading on Friday.

The equity capitalization rose from N25.47 trillion to N25.50 trillion after eight hours of trading on Friday.

The All-Share Index was up by 56.38 basis points to rise from 47,272.04 points to 47,328.42.

Investors traded 253.30 million shares valued at N2.75 billion in 4,266 deals on Friday.

On the tech scene this week, OneOrder, Lipa Payments, Beam, TradeDepot, PayJustNow, Floatpays, and Clickatell were some of the names that made the headlines this week.

TradeDepot, a Nigerian B2B e-commerce and embedded finance startup, during the week, consolidated the acquisition of Accra-based counterpart, Green Lion.

Also, Mauritian startup, Weaver Fintech, acquired cape Town-based fintech startup, PayJustNow as it looks to grow its venture.

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