BUSINESS ROUNDUP: Bitcoin holders pocket $90bn amid surge; Nigeria’s inflation drops to 16.63%; Other stories

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:

• Bitcoin holders pocket $90bn amid surge induced by impending U.S approval
• CBN’s Emefiele needs to stop competing with ministries —Osinbajo
• Nigeria needs N350tr for execution of capital projects – Finance minister
• Nigeria’s inflation drops to 16.63%

Summary:

Positive sentiment in the Bitcoin market continued for another week as report circulated that the United States’ Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) will most likely clear bitcoin futures exchange-traded fund (ETF).

The ETF are basket of securities, while Futures is an agreement to buy or sell assets at an agreed price on or before a specified date in the future, regardless the value of the asset at the specified time.

The U.S SEC had received about 40 bitcoin Futures ETF applications for review to trade, with each having their separate deadlines for approval. The bitcoin Futures applicants face the possibility of rejection or getting notice to implement changes in order to be allowed to trade.

Nigeria’s inflation rate dropped further to 16.63 percent in September from 17.01 percent reported in August 2021.

The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) disclosed this in its September Consumer Price Index (CPI) report published on Friday.

CPI measures the rate of change in the prices of goods and services in Nigeria. According to the data, the September inflation rate is 0.38 percent lower than the 17.01 percent rate registered in August 2021.

The Minister of State for Finance, Budget, and National Planning, Clement Agba, said on Wednesday the Federal Government would need at least N350trillion for the execution of capital projects in the next five years.

The minister stated this in a statement issued ahead of the 27th Nigerian Economic Summit slated to hold from October 25 to 26.

He said the private sector would contribute a total of N300trillion for the execution of the capital projects between 2021 and 2025.

The Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Godwin Emefiele, was told to allow the foreign exchange rate reflect the reality of the country’s market, as Vice President, Yemi Osinbajo, labelled the current rate artificial.

Read also: BUSINESS ROUNDUP: Nigeria’s foreign reserves hit $38.18bn; Bitcoin investors gain $137.74bn in one week; Other stories

On Monday, the forex market closed at N414.40 to $1 on the Investors & Exporters FX window, which is the officially recognised rate market of the CBN, while at the parallel market, one dollar closed around N560.

Osinbajo who spoke at the ministerial retreat held in Abuja on Monday, said the official rate is artificially low and Emefiele needs to address it, as investors won’t be encouraged to invest their money in Nigeria, and as such, affect Nigeria’s foreign reserves.

On NSE ROUNDUP: Investors gain N190bn amid plunge in Sterling Bank, WAPCO

Investors at the Nigerian capital market gained N190 billion following the rise in the equity capitalization by 0.75 percent at the close of trading on Friday.

The equity capitalization rose by N190 billion from N21.43 trillion posted on Thursday to N21.62 trillion today.

The All-Share Index was up by 308.17 basis points to close at 41, 438.15 compared to 41,129.98 recorded the previous day.

Investors infused N8.53 billion into the Nigerian bourse to trade 728.95 million shares in 4,852 deals on Friday.

Meanwhile, on the tech space this week, there is a lot to share with you this weekend. Upon reading through our TechNigeria offering, you won’t be missing out on any major development recorded during the week.

We will share with you the fund raiser story of Lagos-based startup Eden and that of Enugu-based wifi-sharing venture, Wicrypt. Impressively, both startups closed over $1 million during the week.

Aside Eden and Wicrypt, there were other updates you should not miss published in the TechNigeria offering.

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