BUSINESS ROUNDUP: Cement makers to slash price of product; Tinubu seeks $10bn to stabilise exchange rate; 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

• Cement manufacturers to slash prices of products
• FG hands over $1.3bn Zungeru Hydroelectric plant to concessionaire
• CBN asks Customs to adopt same FX rate
• Tinubu seeks $10bn to stabilise exchange rate

Summary

Cement manufacturers in Nigeria have agreed to bring down the price of the product following the Federal Government’s intervention

The federal government at the weekend met with the management of Dangote Cement, BUA Cement, and Lafarge over the escalating price of the product in recent times.

Checks by Ripples Nigeria revealed that the price of the product had increased to as high as N15,000 per bag from the initial N5,500 and this development had caused anxiety amongst developers and builders in the country.

The Federal Government has formally handed over the $1.3 billion Zungeru Hydroelectric Power Plant to a concessionaire, Penstock Limited.

The plant was handed over to the concessionaire at the 2024 inaugural session of the National Council on Privatisation (NCP) held at the Presidential Villa in Abuja and presided over by Vice President Kashim Shettima.

The 700-megawatt plant in Zungeru in North-Central Nigeria was facilitated by a $1.3 billion loan from China.

The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has directed the Nigerian Customs Service (NCS) to adopt the same forex rate for importation and clearance of goods in the country.

READ ALSO:BUSINESS ROUNDUP: NNPCL warns against panic-buying; TCN restores collapsed national grid; Other stories

The apex bank gave the directive in a circular issued on Friday by its Director of Trade and Exchange Department, Hassan Mahmud.

It asked the Customs to adopt the forex closing rate on the date of Form M submitted by importers for the clearance of goods and import duty assessment.

The three tiers of government on Thursday shared the sum of N1.15 trillion as revenue allocation for January.

The Director of Press and Public Relations in the Office of the Accountant-General of the Federation, Bawa Mokwa, disclosed this in a communiqué issued at the end of the Federation Allocation Accounts Committee (FAAC) meeting in Abuja.

He said the amount was N29 billion less than the N1.44 trillion disbursed in January last year.

President Bola Tinubu on Tuesday made public the plan of his government to raise $10bn to improve liquidity in the foreign exchange market.

This is as the Naira fell to an all-time low of 1,850 per dollar at the parallel market.

The President, who was represented by Vice President Kashim Shettima, made the disclosure at the inaugural Public Wealth Management Conference in Abuja.

The Ministry of Finance Incorporated organised the event with the theme “Championing Nigeria’s Economic Prosperity.”

ON NGX ROUNDUP: Investors make N464bn as Nigeria’s equities market rebounds from losses

Investors in the Nigerian capital market went home with N464 billion at the close of trading on Friday.

This followed the rise of market capitalization to N55.8 trillion from N55.3 trillion posted by the bourse on Thursday.

Similarly, the All-Share Index (ASI) increased to 102,088.07 from 101,239.10 recorded the previous day.

ON TECH SCENE: OpenAI, IBM, The Cloud, Instagram, Basserah, nybl, Sawari Ventures, Xalts, Thiqa Tutoring, Exverse, Toast are some of the names that made the headlines this week.

OpenAI, with backing from Microsoft, has finalized a deal that has catapulted the company’s valuation to over $80 billion.

Also, IBM has introduced the LinuxONE 4 Express, a new pre-configured model of its enterprise computing system designed for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).

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