BUSINESS ROUNDUP: CBN under probe for withholding excess crude investment; Nigeria’s foreign reserves slump after Tinubu’s forex reforms; 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:

•  CBN under probe for withholding excess crude investment
•  Court orders Ecobank to pay Honeywell N72.2bn, after eight-year battle
•  Nigerian govt to delist two loan apps for harassing Nigerians
•  Nigeria’s foreign reserves slump to two–year low after Tinubu’s forex reforms

Summary:

The House of Representatives has set up an ad-hoc committee to investigate the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) over its use of the excess crude account for investments.

CBN was accused of depositing $1,829,025.45 as interest on investments in the excess crude account without releasing details relating to the investment principal.

According to the Labour Party (LP) lawmaker from Edo, Esosa Iyawe, on Thursday, the auditor-general of the Federation requested the details of the investments and utilisation of funds from the Petroleum Profit tax (PPT)/Royalty and Foreign Excess Crude Account.

Foreign exchange (Forex) scarcity will persist in Nigeria as the country’s external reserves fell to the lowest level since August 2021, data from the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has shown.

CBN reported that Nigeria’s foreign reserves fell to $33.9 billion on Wednesday, July 19, below the $35.14 billion reported on May 26, three days before former President Muhammadu Buhari left office.

The international reserves have been dwindling under President Bola Tinubu. Since he took over office from Buhari, the external reserves went down by 3.32 per cent.

The Federal Government has said that it will delist two legal (registered) loan apps for harassing Nigerians and also release a list of illegal (unregistered) loan apps operating in the country.

READ ALSO:BUSINESS ROUNDUP: Nigeria’s inflation rate to hit 25%; Tinubu signs Executive Orders on tax; Other stories

The Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (FCCPC) said this on Thursday, adding that it had added digital money lenders that had refused or failed to register under its guidelines on its watchlist for strict surveillance and necessary action.

The Executive Vice Chairman/Chief Executive Officer of FCCPC, Babatunde Irukera in a statement on Thursday, said: “The commission has also placed digital money lenders that have refused or failed to register under the guidelines on its watchlist for strict surveillance and necessary action.

Following its eight years legal battle with Ecobank Nigeria, Honeywell Flour Mills (HFMP) has been awarded N72.2 billion in damages by Justice Mohammed Liman of the Federal High Court, Lagos.

Justice Liman, who presided over the case, granted the requests of Honeywell Flour against Ecobank on Tuesday in the legal battle that started after the lender refused the manufacturer access to its accounts in 2015.

Honeywell Flour’s accounts were frozen in November 2015 when Ecobank secured an ex parte order, which was granted on the condition that the financial institution will compensate the former for harm or loss caused by the action.

On NSE ROUNDUP: FBN Holdings fined for failing to comply with regulation, posts N187bn net profit

FBN Holdings was fined for failing to comply with the regulations of the capital market authority, NGX Regulation Limited, for the financial period of 2022.

Ripples Nigeria gathered that FBN Holdings was sanctioned for late submission of the 2022 Full Year audited financial statements and first quarter (Q1) 2023 unaudited financial statements.

NGX Regulation Limited fined FBN Holdings, the parent company of First Bank Nigeria, N9.6 million for not adhering to the regulations on the release of financial statements.

On the tech scene, MyCover, Amazon, Meta, YallaHub, Hexacore, Kaco, were some of the names that made the headlines this week.

A Nigerian insurtech startup, MyCover.ai, has announced securing a pre-seed funding round of $1.25 million.

Also, Meta-owned messaging platform, WhatsApp, on Wednesday night experienced a widespread outage in Nigeria as users were unable to communicate via the app.

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