Business

BUSINESS ROUNDUP: IMF urges Nigeria to remove fuel subsidy; Bitcoin adoption in Nigeria falls 53.3% amid declining inflation; Other stories

Published

2 years ago

November 21, 2021

Nigeria retains position, scores lower in global competitiveness index

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:

IMF urges Nigeria to remove fuel subsidy
Bitcoin adoption in Nigeria falls 53.3% amid declining inflation
Billionaire Sowami loses N728m after acquisition of Enyo
Nigeria’s economic growth slows to 4.03% in Q3 -NBS

Summary:

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has called for the complete removal of fuel and electricity subsidies in Nigeria early next year.

In the concluding statement of its 2021 Article IV Mission published on Friday, the Bretton Woods institution urged the Federal Government to implement revenue-based fiscal consolidation in the country.

Nigeria, according to IMF, needs major reforms in fiscal, exchange rate, trade, and governance to promote sustainable growth.

Bitcoin has been a perfect hedge against Nigeria’s double-digit inflation in the last two years, but as consumer price index (CPI) declines, the adoption of the crypto dipped in the country.

The decentralised digital coin has been a store of value for many Nigerians as naira loses weight to the double-digit inflation rate, but the nation’s central bank, led by Godwin Emefiele, has been a stumbling block to BTC.

And as bitcoin struggles with the spanner in its works, the Nigerian Bureau of Statistics (NBS) has been reporting that inflation is on a downtrend for seven-straight months, flipping on its head to settle at 15.99 percent in October, which is 0.17 percent lower than 16.63 percent posted in September.

The nation’s economy grew more slowly in the third quarter of the year than it did in the second quarter, according to data from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS)

This was revealed by Simon Harry the Statistician- General of the Federation on Thursday in Abuja.

According to him, from July to September Nigeria’s economy grew by 4.03 percent but slower than the massive 5.01 percent GDP recorded in the previous quarter.

Billionaire Abdulwasiu Sowami lost 5.38 percent of his wealth on Wednesday after he acquired fuel retailing company, Enyo Retail and Supply Limited for an undisclosed amount.

Sowami made the acquisition through his company, Ardova, where he holds a 75 percent controlling stake.

The firm, formerly known as Forte Oil, purchased 100 percent shares in Enyo Retail. Ardova carried out the deal through its wholly-owned subsidiary, Bags and Kegs Limited.

On NSE ROUNDUP: Investors lose N3.27tr in eight hours as GTCO leads active trade

Investors lost N3.27 trillion at the close of trading on Friday after the Nigerian capital market tumbled by 14.5 percent.

The loss was fueled by a sell-off among traders this week. This pushed down the equity capitalization from N22.58 trillion to N19.31 trillion on Thursday.

The All-Share Index was down by 86.7 basis points to close at 43,199.27 compared to 43,285.97 recorded the previous day.

Investors traded 199.51 million shares valued at N3.25 billion in 3,917 deals on Friday. This was lower than the 210.54 million shares worth N2.60 billion which exchanged hands in 3,423 deals on Thursday.

Meanwhile, on the tech space, DrugStoc, Shuttlers, Chooya, Aboki Africa, Identitypass, Releaf, Gricd and Publiseer were some of the names that made the headlines this week.

Africa Health Holdings, a healthcare startup, raised $18 million in a Series A round.

Also, Nigeria’s female-led “tech-enabled bus sharing” company, Shuttlers, secured a $1.6 million in seed funding from several investors.

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