BUSINESS ROUNDUP: Naira appreciates against the U.S dollar; Nigerian govt to sell five power plants; 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:

• Naira appreciates against the U.S dollar
• MultiChoice denies tax evasion accusation
• Stablecoins hands Visa $1 billion worth of transactions after Q2 entry
• Nigerian govt to sale off five power plants

Summary:

Multichoice, South African digital television has denied the accusation from the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) that it dodged tax and had an outstanding of N1.8 trillion.

In a statement on Thursday, the company said it has complied with Nigerian tax laws and will prove that to the FIRS.

FIRS on Thursday announced it has engaged commercial banks to freeze and recover the amount from the bank accounts of MultiChoice Nigeria Limited and MultiChoice Africa. Read more

On Thursday, the Nigerian currency gained against the US Dollar in the foreign currency (FX) market’s Investors and Exporters (I&E) window.

Data from FMDQ securities shows the domestic currency appreciated by 20 kobo or 0.05 percent against the greenback to close on Thursday, July 8 at N411.25/$1 compared with N411.45/$1 it finished on Wednesday.

Market participants during trading yesterday bid for The Naira at an intraday low of N420.86 and a high of N400.00 before closing at N411.25 on Thursday. Read more

Payment company, Visa, recorded massive cryptocurrency transactions on its platform in the first half of 2021, a period bitcoin hit its biggest milestone.

In the last week of March, Visa revealed that it had added USD Coins [which is pegged to US dollar] to its payment options as it took advantage of the growing crypto community.

In a recent statement updating the public on the impact of digital currency on its transaction system, Visa stated that in the first half of this year, customers spent over $1 billion with its crypto-linked cards. Read more

The Director-General of the Bureau of Public Enterprise (BPE), Dr. Alex Okoh, said on Monday the sale of the five National Integrated Power Plants (NIPPs) will go on as planned.

Read also: BUSINESS ROUNDUP: Bitcoin active addresses fall lowest since March 2020; Gas flaring drops by 92%; Other stories

Okoh, disclosed this in a statement issued by BPE Head of Public Communications, Amina Othman, in on Monday Abuja.

He said the Bureau had received 36 Expression of Interest (EOIs) from prospective investors. Read more

On NSE ROUNDUP: Market cap down by 1.2% as investors lose N250bn

Investors at the Nigerian stock market lost N250 billion at the close of the trading week on Friday.

This followed the drop in the equity capitalization to N19.79 trillion at the close of business on the floor of the capital market today.

The figure was N250 billion or 1.2 percent lower than the N20.4 trillion reported by the bourse on Thursday. Read more

On the tech scene, this week, we were able to track some notable idea launch and fund raisers where a number of Nigerian tech startups secured about $70million.

Leading the equity table, FairMoney, a Nigeria-based credit-led digital bank, raised US$42 million in Series B funding.

Closely following FairMoney, Solar system startup Daystar closed a US$20 million facility from the International Finance Corporation (IFC). Other startups that raised funds include Smile Identify and Payhippo. Read full review

Remarks

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

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