BUSINESS ROUNDUP: Cooking gas price goes up by 86.62%; FG reverses 10% hike in gsm calls, data; 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:

· Nigerian govt secures delivery of nine aircraft for Nigeria Air, awaits 11 more

· Cooking gas price increases by 86.62% in one year, North-Central worst hit

· CBN completes sale of Polaris Bank for N50bn

· Nigerian govt directs Telcos to reverse 10% hike in calls, data prices

· Ghanaian cedi is world’s worst-performing currency

Summary:

Nigeria’s national carrier will begin operation in December with 20 petrol-aircraft, the Minister of Aviation, Hadi Sirika, has disclosed.

Ripples Nigeria gathered that nine of the 20 aircrafts ordered by the Federal Government have been delivered, but Sirika assured that the timeframe to commence operation will not be changed.

He made this known on Friday, during a meeting with the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Femi Gbajabiamila, who raised concerns regarding the national carrier.

The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) has disclosed that the average price of cooking gas has increased by 86 percent in a year.

It stated this in its Cooking Gas Price Watch’’ for September 2022 released on Saturday.

Details showed that the price of 5kg of gas jumped to N4,474.48 from N2,397.60 obtainable for the same volume in September 2021.

READ ALSO:AfDB, FCMB sign $50m agreement to boost finance for SMEs, Women-Empowered Businesses

The market valuation of the Nigerian stock exchange rose by 0.14 percent at the close of trading on Friday.

This means the capital market’s equity capitalization rose by N40 billion from N24.14 trillion from N24.18 trillion after eight hours of trading on Friday.

The All-Share Index continued its sluggish growth with 64.52 basis points to rise from 44,332.21 to 44,396.73.

The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and the Asset Management Company of Nigeria (AMCON) on Thursday confirmed the sales of Polaris Bank.

This followed the completion of a Share Purchase Agreement (SPA) for the acquisition of a 100 percent stake in Polaris Bank by Strategic Capital Investment Limited (‘SCIL’).

The House of Representatives had on Wednesday okayed the sale of the bank, noting that the acquisition followed the laid down procedure and the relevant presidential approval.

The Federal Govenment might have triggered a showdown with the telecommunications sector after ordering the reversal of the implementation of the newly approved 10% hike in tariff for voice and data services.

This was revealed by the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) on Wednesday, in a statement titled, “FG Directs Network Service Providers to Reverse Unilateral Upward Tariff Adjustment,” issued by the NCC’s Director, Public Affairs Reuben Muoka on Wednesday.

While noting that the tariff increase was due “in line with the mandates of the Commission as provided by the Nigerian Communications Act, 2003, and other extant Regulations and Guidelines,” the implementation has been halted.

The Ghanaian currency, Cedi, has become the worst performing currency in the world.

According to Bloomberg reports the cedi fell to as much as 3.3 per cent on Monday, October 17, 2023, to exchange for 11.2750 cedis per dollar as of Monday afternoon in the capital, Accra.

This year, the cedi has lost more than 45 per cent of its value, the highest among 148 currencies that Bloomberg tracked.

On NSE ROUND UP: Investors make N40bn as Nigerian capital market’s value rises by 0.14%

The value of stocks in the Nigerian capital market rose by 0.09 percent at the close of trading on Friday.

This means the equity capitalization rose by N24.32 billion from N25.88 trillion to N25.90 trillion on Friday.

Similarly, the All-Share Index rose by 44.66 basis points to close with 47,569.04, up from 47,524.38 posted the previous day.

Investors traded 124.43 million shares worth N4.27 billion in 3,101 deals on Friday.

This surpassed the 86.54 million shares worth N2.09 billion traded by shareholders in 3,264 deals on Thursday.

Google, vaIU, Plaid, Bumpa, GlobalFair, Startup Bill, Nexta, MaxAB, Holidu, WhatsApp, Maplerad, One Finance, Byju were some of the names that made the headlines in the tech ecosystem this week.

A Nigerian social commerce startup, Bumpa, has announced securing a $4M seed round led by Base10 Partners.

Also, during the week, a business-to-business startup, GlobalFair, has on Thursday announced securing $20 million Series A debt and equity funding led by Lightspeed

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