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BUSINESS ROUNDUP: CBN to seize private jets of debtors; debt servicing gulps over 60% of 2019 revenue; See other stories that made our pick

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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, mainstream business activities while not forgetting the tech/economy build up.

Here are the Headlines:

  • CBN to seize private jets of loan defaulters
  • Nigeria spent over 60% of revenue on debts servicing in 2019
  • Dangote clears last hurdle for world’s biggest fertiliser plant
  • Gas flaring costs Nigerian Govt N128bn revenue loss in 11 months

Summary:

The Governor of Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Godwin Emefiele, said on Saturday the apex bank would seize the private jets of loan defaulters in the country.

Emefiele, who stated this during a visit to the Dangote Refinery and Fertiliser project site in Lagos, said a large chunk of the loans in the Asset Management Corporation of Nigeria (AMCON) portfolio is owed by Nigerians. Read more

Recent report on Nigeria’s financial spendings has revealed that the nation’s debt service to revenue ratio is over 60 per cent.The report explains that Nigeria spends more than 60 per cent of its revenue in 2019 on servicing debts.

According to experts, this outstrips the World Bank’s benchmark that debt service to revenue ratio should not exceed 22.5%. Read more

The culmination of the world’s most expansive granulated urea fertiliser project is days ahead. Dangote Fertiliser Limited on Tuesday declared that practically all the segments of the three million tonnes output per annum plant had been completed.

According to reports from the company, units like the cooling tower, granulation plant, ammonia and urea bulk storage, central control room and power generator are undergoing the scrutiny of test run. Read more

Revenue estimated at N127.53 billion was lost to flared gas by the Nigerian Government in the 11 months to November 2019.In quantity terms, this value equals 225.81 billion standard cubic feet (scf) of natural gas, figure gleaned from the state-owned Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) showed.

Gas flaring has become a big logjam to Africa’s largest economy with the passage of time, costing the country a revenue loss in the neighbourhood of N233 billion (US$761.6 million) in 2018 according to PricewaterhouseCoopers as government sources to broaden its fiscal basket.

However, the 2019 volume of flared gas reflects a 13.2% decline when set beside the 2018 reported figure, standing at 260.19 billion scf. Read more

On NSE ROUNDUPInvestors lose N610bn as profit-taking persists

Read also: BUSINESS ROUNDUP: Dispute over N28bn un-remitted revenue; Nigeria’s drying oil wells; See other stories that made our pick

Heavy sell off cost the market N610 billion this week. So far this year, investors have lost N1.646 trillion due to the negative sentiments that have marked the stock market activities.

All the key market performance indicators closed lower this week. A negative market breadth was recorded this week as 24 losers emerged against 6 gainers. The All Share Index (ASI) dipped by 4.28% to 26,216.46 basis points. Equally, Market Capitalisation fell by 4.28% to N13.658 trillion.

Trade Volume of 1.547 billion shares worth N24.263 billion was recorded in 21,646 deals this week compared to the 1.499 billion shares valued at N17.907 billion posted in 18.515 deals last week. Read more

Meanwhile, in our editorial Business Review segment;

We discussed the recent government‘s decision to support agriculture and technology in a bid to diversify from oil. While the development is a commendable move, it’s unfortunate to see how government downplayed tech with a sharing formula that accorded only 10% of the new $268 million fund to tech where the other chunk of 90% goes to agriculture.

While enlisting the beauty of investing in tech towards economic transformation, we noted that given the rising trend of Fintech firms and the great potentials that comes with such investment, more was expected from the government to support tech entrepreneurs in the country. Read more

On Saturday, we delved into the new turn of events in Cote D’Ivoire as one of its startups, Afrikrea, secures €1 million from French VC.

It was a spectacular achievement as the country has suffered a bit of isolation in recent years. We wrote on what Cote d’Ivoire must do to attract more of such investments, highlighting how its small size of addressable market has been a major disadvantage. Read more

Thanks for joining the roundup this week. See you next week for another serving of Business Roundup. Don’t forget, for the latest news and updates from around the globe, keep reading Ripples Nigeria.

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