BUSINESS ROUNDUP: External reserves drop by $2.43bn; Oil price falls to $32.55; 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:

• External reserves shed $2.43bn in 2 months, now $36.22bn
• Oil prices drop to $32.55 as Buhari calls for economic diversification
• Naira sheds value, falls to 420 per dollar
• Dangote to begin 20,000 barrels per day oil production in July

Summary:

Data from the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, has revealed that between 1st January and 12^th March this year, Nigeria’s external reserves shed the sum of $2.43 billion (about N888.165 billion) in value. In specific terms, the foreign reserves crumbled from $38.59 billion at the beginning of January to $36.16 billion on Thursday, signalling a 6.3% decline so far this year.

Nigeria’s international reserves have been under pressure lately, overwhelmingly weakened by the ravages of the coronavirus pandemic and the vulnerabilities induced by the oil price war between Saudi Arabia and Russia. Read more.

The downtrend in the international oil market deepened early Friday with oil prices falling for the third straight day, setting in motion the biggest weekly drop of Brent crude (the benchmark for Nigeria’s Bonny Light) since 1991 and the worst week for West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude since 2008.

The ravages of the coronavirus pandemic are still very much strong on the market with Brent crude losing 67 cents or 2% per barrel at 01:26 West African Time (WAT) after tumbling by over 7% on Thursday. Read more.

The Naira slumped in value against the dollar on Thursday,March 13, exchanging for between N405 and N420 at Bureaux De Change (BDC) in the country.

The persistent fall in oil prices in the international market to as low as $35 a barrel stirred up speculations among BDC operators, said Aminu Gwadabe, the Association of Bureaux De Change Operators of Nigeria President. Read more.

Read also: BUSINESS ROUNDUP: Oil market price and the COVID-19 effect; FIRS moves to contain revenue leakages; See other stories that made our pick

Billionaire mogul, Aliko Dangote, will launch a foray into crude oil production come July this year, a feat that will mark the latest addition to an expanding formidable conglomerate that spans cement, sugar and salt production.

Africa’s richest man’s money-making ambition knows no bounds with its $2 billion-valued fertiliser plant, the biggest ever in the world according to reports, anticipated to begin operations anytime soon, having scaled the hurdle of test run late last month. Read more.

On NSE ROUNDUP: Investors lose N3.457tn in less than 2 months to relentless profit-taking

Between 20^th January and 13 March 2020, emerging report has confirmed that the Nigerian stock market shed N3.457 trillion, shedding an incredible 22.6% of its value in less than 8 weeks. Specifically, the market capitalisation cratered from N15.304 trillion to N11.827 trillion in between the periods. However, this week is the worst for investment so far this year with the market losing over N1.848 trillion to market jitters.

All the key market performance indicators closed lower this week. A negative market breadth was recorded as 64 losers emerged against 2 gainers. The All Share Index (ASI) diminished 13.49% to 22,733.35 basis points. Equally, Market Capitalisation shrank by 13.49% to N11.847 trillion. To read more, follow link.

Meanwhile in our editorial business review segment;

We analysed how Nigeria-based Jet Motor Company is investing over N30bn to transform Nigeria into an electric car economy. We asked a number of questions that are critical to this becoming. We looked at the market realities and key factors needed to be met by the company to lead Africa’s largest economy into a space for electric cars like Tesla is doing in the U.S.

In putting up our post, we interviewed Jet Motor Company’s Director of Sales and Marketing, Rupani Sanjay, who revealed how his company is heavily investing in research and development, highlighting how it is also partnering with GIG Logistics to deliver on this vision for Africa. 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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