BUSINESS ROUNDUP: Discovery of oil in N’East; Nigeria’s tax-revenue loss; See other stories that made our pick

Hello, and welcome to Business Roundup this week. Here, we bring you highlights of events that happened during the week -from the capital market, mainstream business activities while not forgetting the tech/economy build up.

Here are the Headlines:

• Govt mulls PPP for tolling of Lagos-Ibadan Expressway
• Nigerian govt transfers Oil Mining Lease 98 to NPDC
• Govt loses huge revenue to random tax waiver
• Nigerian govt discovers 1bn barrels of crude oil in North East

Summary:

The Federal Government on Friday unveiled the modalities for the restoration of toll gates to the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway.

Ripples Nigeria reported that a Public Private Partnership (PPP) arrangement is currently being contemplated for tolling the interstate route just as preparations are in top gear to weigh goods carried by trucks and tankers that ply the route. Read more.

The Federal Government on Friday transferred the ownership of Oil Mining Lease (OML) 98 to the Nigerian Petroleum Development Company (NPDC), the upstream subsidiary of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC).

This came almost one year after the federal government revoked the Pan Ocean Oil Corporation’s ownership of the asset alongside the assets of five other companies. Read more.

Mohammad Nima, Chairman Federal Inland Revenue Service, FIRS, has condemned the unprofessional and unethicalgranting tax waivers to big companies, noting that corrupt practice is do not only erode government’s revenue base, but also hinders the Federal Inland Revenue  Service (FIRS) from meeting its target.

Muhammad Nami, the FIRS Chairman, made the disclosure on Thursday at a senate interactive session with revenue-generating agencies in Abuja. According to the agency’s boss, random tax waiver alongside factors like illicit financial flows abroad and outrageous overhead costs cause the country enormous revenue leakage regularly. Read more.

The Nigerian government has discovered about one billion barrels of crude oil in North East part of the country, a minister in charge of the petroleum industry said on Wednesday.

The Minister of State, Petroleum Resources, Timipre Sylva, who disclosed this at a news conference on the 2020 Nigeria International Petroleum Summit (NIPS) held in Abuja, however, said a lot of oil is yet to be discovered in the country. Read more.

On NSE ROUNDUP: Market remains largely bearish as companies turn in weak earnings

The path to stable recovery still seems far ahead for the Nigerian equity market, considering that this week marks its third straight loss this year.

Read also: BUSINESS ROUNDUP: Nigeria to borrow $17bn; CBN’s Forex release; See other stories that made our pick

As companies release their full-year results, most of which are underwhelming, the fear of depreciation in the value of stocks is driving many investors to sell off their holdings as early as possible.

Consequently, all the key market performance indicators closed lower. A negative market breadth was recorded this week as 19 gainers emerged against 15 losers. The All Share Index (ASI) dipped by 1.11% to 27,755.87 basis points. Market Capitalisation equally fell by the same margin to N14.456 trillion. Read more.

Meanwhile, on our editorial Business Review segment;

We took time out to look at how profitable Nigerian-owned Fintech space is becoming, citing a recent funding rounds received by the five year old Nigerian fintech firm, Aella Credit.

We noted that recent significant interest shown by foreign investors must have been a result of a booming sector around the business. We noted that, in the past, businesses have crashed owing to lack of funds, citing the thoughts of entrepreneur and venture capitalist Tony Elumelu. Read more.

We equally did a review to reveal how, despite, unfavourable circumstances have attempted to mare business growth and success in Nigeria, a good number of startups are found scaling through.

This is not only surprising as a number of these startups are now in fierce competition with global brands, but also fascinating to see them win placements and slots once dominated by initiatives powered by foreign tech outfit.

Our case study is the Thank U Cash emergence into the American 500 Startups accelerator programme. Read more.

Thanks for joining the roundup this week. See you next week for another serving of Business Roundup. Don’t forget, for the latest news and updates from around the globe, keep reading Ripples Nigeria.

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