BUSINESS ROUNDUP: CBN hikes interest rate to 18.5%; Court delays Oando’s deal; other stories

Hello, and welcome to the 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:

· FG unveils Nigeria Air, targets 35 aircraft in five years

· CBN increases interest rate to 18.5%

· Court delays Oando’s acquisition

· Dangote says refinery production output to begin in July/August

Summary:

The Federal Government on Friday unveiled the country’s national carrier, Nigeria Air, at the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, Abuja. The aircraft for Nigeria Air landed at the airport earlier on Friday.

The Minister of Aviation, Hadi Sirika, who unveiled the national carrier at its operation centre located within the airport, said more aircraft would arrive in the country until the airline reaches the 35-aircraft mark in the next five years.

He said the partnership with Ethiopian Airlines would connect the market of both countries.

The Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has increased the Monetary Policy Rate, also known as the interest rate, to 18.5 per cent.

CBN raised the rate from 18 per cent to 18.5 per cent on Wednesday, after the MPC meeting held at CBN Headquarters in Abuja.

In the last meeting held in March, the CBN also moved the interest rate up from 17.5 per cent to 18 per cent. The financial regulator has been raising the rate since April 2022, when the MPR was 11.5 per cent.

The acquisition of minority shares by Ocean and Oil Development Partners (OODP) and Oando Plc has been delayed by the Federal High Court, Ikoyi, sitting in Lagos State.

Honourable Justice Aneke, presiding over the Scheme Of Arrangement for the acquisition, adjourned the hearing to October 10, 2023.

In a statement obtained on Tuesday but dated May 22, 2023, Oando disclosed the adjournment of the case between minority shareholders and Ocean and Oil Development Partners and Oando Plc.

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Recall that the minority shareholders had petitioned the court to compel either Ocean and Oil Development or Oando to acquire their shares – OODP agreed to acquire the shares.

The founder of Dangote Petroleum Refinery and Petrochemicals, Aliko Dangote, has revealed that the first production output from the facility will be in the third quarter of 2023.

Dangote, on Monday, during the commissioning of the refinery, said production output will begin by the end of July or the beginning of August.

Dangote Petroleum Refinery and Petrochemicals “will be in the market before the end of July, beginning of August this year,” he told guests at the launch.

On NSE ROUNDUP: Conoil, Nascon investors pocket N82.9bn as Nigeria’s capital market recovers from trading losses

The equity capitalization in the Nigerian capital market rose by 0.28 percent on Friday.

This represented a N82.92 billion growth in the value of investments in the capital market from N28.76 trillion to N28.84 trillion after five hours of trading today.

Similarly, the All-Share Index increased by 152.28 basis points to close at 52,973.88, up from 52,821.6 achieved by the bourse on Thursday.

Investors traded 461.78 million worth N7.66 billion in 6,520 deals on Friday.

On the tech scene, Earnipay, Baidu, Wosul, ChatGPT, CDcare, Korfaw, Chumz, Waymo, Uber, WhatsApp, Brolly, iProcure, Stripe were some of the names that made the headlines in the tech ecosystem this week.

Nigerian fintech startup, Earnipay, which provides flexible and on-demand salary access to income-earners, has completed a $4 million funding round.

Also, a Nigerian startup connecting and empowering tailors, fitted, has announced developing a digital platform that uses machine learning to eliminate inefficiencies in the custom tailoring industry.

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