BUSINESS ROUNDUP: GTB’s Agbaje is Nigeria’s highest-paid bank CEO in 2022. Cash shortages in Q1 to weaken Nigeria’s growth; 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:

· Shareholders lose N12.6bn amidst Otedola’s disinvestment in Transcorp

· Herbert Wigwe increases stake in Access Bank with N11.3bn shares

· GTB’s Agbaje becomes Nigeria’s highest-paid bank CEO in 2022

· Cash shortages in Q1 to weaken Nigeria’s growth in 2023 –Fitch

· Nigerian Breweries’ majority investor in Nigeria, Kolawole Jamodu, to exit firm

Summary:

The billionaire businessman, Femi Otedola’s exit from Transnational Corporation (Transcorp) has resulted in a 9.93 percent drop in shareholders’ investment value.

Ripples Nigeria had reported that Otedola bought a total of 2.47 billion shares representing a 6.08 percent controlling stake in the company on April 20.

The development pushed Otedola above the Transcorp chairman, Tony Elumelu, as the single majority shareholder in the company.

The Group Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of Access Holdings, Herbert Wigwe, has increased his stake in the financial institution to 8.13 percent.

This followed Thursday’s acquisition of 1.13 billion shares valued at N11.35 billion in the lender.

The development has therefore increased Wigwe’s stake in the organisation from 4.93 percent to 8.13 percent.

Nigerian Breweries’ majority investor in Nigeria, Kolawole B. Jamodu, will exit the company after 14 years. He will officially leave the company on April 30, 2023.

Jamodu is the Chairman of Nigerian Breweries, a position after 14 years. Asue Ighodalo has been announced as his replacement.

The investor was first appointed as chairman on January 1, 2008. He led the Nigerian Breweries board through acquisitions and mergers between 2011 and 2014.

Fitch Solutions, the research arm of credit rating agency, Fitch ratings, has predicted that Nigeria’s economy will grow by only 2.3 percent this year, down from 3.1 percent in 2022.

Fitch stated this in its Africa Monthly Outlook report released on its website on Tuesday.

“We forecast that Nigeria, Sub Saharan Africa’s largest economy and oil producer will record below-trend growth of 2.3 percent in 2023, down from 3.1 percent in 2022.”

Read also:BUSINESS ROUNDUP: Naira cash crises push E-transactions to N135tn in 3mths; GTBank loses N35.55bn; other stories

Segun Agbaje, the Chief Executive Officer of Guaranty Trust Holding Company, has emerged as the highest-paid bank CEO in the country for 2022.

Data obtained from GTCO‘s audited financials for 2022 show that Agbaje earned a whopping N445.69 million as a compensation package. This is more than the N171.95 million he earned in 2021 before GTB became a holding company.

Agbaje’s compensation has now surpassed that of Demola Sogunle of Stanbic Bank, who has long held the crown as the best-paid bank executive in the country.

On NSE ROUNDUP: Transcorp, Access Corp top trading as investors earn N91.2bn

The value of investments in the Nigerian capital market rose to N28.53 trillion at the close of trading on Friday.

This represents a N91.27 billion or 0.32 percent increase over the N28.44 trillion posted by the bourse on Thursday.

Similarly, the All-Share Index rose by 167.63 basis points to close at 52,403.51, up from 52,235.88 reported the previous day.

On the tech scene, Clubhouse, Reddit, Pinterest, Meta, Entre, Kakao Pay, Payday, JICA, KYC, Twitter were some of the names that made the headlines in the tech ecosystem this week.

KYC compliance and ID verification partner, Smile Identity, during the week, acquired Appruve, a Ghanaian developer of identity verification software to strengthen ID verification services.

Also, American image-sharing and social media service, Pinterest, has disclosed its multiyear strategic ad partnership with Amazon.

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