BUSINESS ROUNDUP: CBN warns of fake notes in circulation; Naira crashes to all-time low; 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:

• 1,800 workers risk losing jobs as P&G dissolves operations in Nigeria
• CBN issues alert on fake notes in circulation
• Businesses to receive grants, loans as part of subsidy palliatives
• Dangote Refinery sets to begin production as first crude shipment lands in facility
• Naira crashes to all-time low

Summary

No fewer than 1800 direct staff and a further 3,000 indirect employees will be thrown into the job market as top consumer goods giant Procter & Gamble has disclosed that it plans to dissolve on-ground operations in Nigeria and embrace an import market.

P&G are the producer of popular products like Ariel, Bonux, Pampers, Always Sanitary pad and Vicks in Nigeria.

This development is coming a few months after global biopharma company, Glaxo-SmithKline Beecham (GSK) similarly closed its operation in Nigeria.

The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has warned Nigerians about fake Naira notes in circulation.

The CBN’s Acting Director of Corporate Communications, Mrs. Hakama Sidi Ali, issued the alert in a statement on Friday in Abuja.

She said the counterfeit banknotes were mainly used for transactions in food markets and other commercial centres across major cities in the country.

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The Federal Government has said that two of its programmes targeted at alleviating the impact of fuel subsidy removal will soon kickoff.

The Minister of Industry, Trade and Investment, Dr. Doris Uzoka-Anite, disclosed this at the weekend, listing the two programmes as presidential conditional grant and presidential palliative loan.

“In the presidential conditional grant programme, the federal government will disburse a grant of N50,000.00 to nano businesses across the 774 local government areas in the country.

Dangote oil refinery is to commence fuel production with the expected arrival of the first crude shipment to the facility later on Thursday.

A leading oil and gas source, S&P Global, said on Thursday an OTIS tanker carrying 950,000 barrels of Nigeria’s Agbami crude began its voyage to Lekki in Lagos State, the nearest land port to Dangote’s offshore crude receiving terminal on December 6.

It added that the arrival of the first crude shipment at the $19 billion refinery marks a significant milestone for Nigeria’s oil industry.

Following the persistence of foreign exchange scarcity in the country, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has extended the timeline for the issuance of letters of credit from 24 hours to five working days.

Similarly, the apex bank extended the timeline for the registration of Form M and NXP from 24 hours to two working days.

Previously, according to the approved 2020 service charter of the CBN, the timeline for the issuance and management of letters of credit was

The Naira crossed the N1,000 mark to reach an all-time low of N1,099.05/$1 on Friday, data from the Nigerian Autonomous Foreign Exchange Market (NAFEM) window has shown.

This represents a significant 23.29% or N255.98 drop in valuation compared to its previous closing rate.

The Nigerian currency had on Thursday rebounded to close at N843.07/$1 at the official market.

ON NGX ROUNDUP: Investors lose N191bn as equities market declines by 0.49%

The All-Share Index (ASI) dropped by 0.49 percent at the close of trading on Thursday.
This represented a 350.7 basis points drop in the ASI to 71,457.92 from 71,808.64 posted by the bourse the previous day.

Investors also lost N191 billion after five hours of trading on Friday.

24 equities gained while 29 others declined in share prices as the number of deals hit 7,096.

ON TECH SCENE: Chui Ventures, Meta, Bujeti, Amini, Flow48, Bitmama Inc., Afri-Venture capital, Mtor, tappi, Microsoft, were some of the names that made the headlines this week.

Pan-African Seed fund led by Managing Partner Joyce-Ann Wainaina, Chui Ventures, has secured a substantial $9 million commitment from the Mastercard Foundation Africa Growth Fund.

Also, Nigeria’s fintech sector, Bitmama Inc., a blockchain payments platform, has acquired Payday, a virtual card service provider.

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