BUSINESS ROUNDUP: Customs introduces electronic valuation policy. Weak Naira drags Nigeria’s inflation rate to 16.82%; 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:

• Elon Musk eyes 25% slash in Twitter’s $44bn deal
• Most farmers see Agric loan as ‘national cake’, CBN laments
• Customs to introduce controversial electronic valuation policy
• Weak Naira, rising food prices drag Nigeria’s inflation rate for April to 16.82%

Summary:

Tesla owner, Elon Musk, has suggested that the value of his Twitter deal would cost less than previously agreed.

Ripples Nigeria had previously reported that Musk and Twitter board had agreed to a deal worth $44 billion for the platform which currently has a market capitalization of $29.26 billion.

However, since both parties had announced that Musk would take 100 percent ownership of the microblogging site, the deal has been stalled by the uncertainty of the actual active number of Twitter’s user base.

The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has lamented that the majority of farmers who benefited from the Anchor Borrowers’ Programme (ABP) have not repaid the loans.

This was made known by Mr Sadeeq Ajayi, a CBN Development Finance Officer in Ibadan at the Agribusiness Innovation Clinic.

Read also: BUSINESS ROUNDUP: Nigeria’s reserves drop by $384m; Nation fails to meet OPEC quota, loses N49bn; Other stories

In his address entitled Fostering Innovation and Collaboration Across the Agricultural Value Chain organised by the Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition (GAIN) he said most of the beneficiaries see the loan as their share of national cake.

The electronic valuation policy suspended by the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) would be reintroduced on Friday, despite protest against the policy which was claimed would increase cost of imported cars.

The policy, meant for Vehicle Inspection Number (VIN) on imported vehicles, was previously suspended after the house of representatives intervened to avert protest by the freight forwarders or clearing agents.

Ripples Nigeria had reported that the e-invoicing and e-valuation policy was introduced by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), with the customs service backing the introduction.

Inflation in April 2022 increased to an 8-month high of 16.82 per cent amid rising food prices and weak Naira which has made the cost of importation very expensive.

The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) stated this in its latest ‘Consumer Price Index April 2022’ report which measures the rate of increase in the price of goods and services

According to the NBS report, the latest inflation figure is an increase from 15.92 per cent recorded in March.

On NSE ROUNDUP: Investors lose N159.3bn as Transcorp, UBA record high trading

Investors at the Nigerian capital market lost N159.3 billion on Friday following the crash in the equity capitalization by-0.55% at the close of the day’s business.

After eight hours of trading on Friday, the equity capitalization closed at N28.56 trillion, down from N28.72 trillion recorded the previous day.

Similarly, the All-Share Index was down by 295.53 basis points to settle at 52,979.96 compared to 53,275.49 achieved on Thursday.

Investors traded 436.56 million shares worth N3.22 billion in 4,716 deals today.

This surpassed the 274.55 billion shares valued at N8.44 billion traded by investors in 5,184 deals on Thursday.

On the tech scene, Happitech, Google, Meta, Moovebeta, Zuri Health, Autochek, and Topship were some of the names that made the headlines this week.

A Nigerian digital freight forwarding platform, Topship, during the week, announced securing a $2.5M seed round.

Also, an Adanian Labs Africa incubated fintech startup, Moovebeta, merged with 10-year-old B2B Fintech company, ImpalaPay.

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