BUSINESS ROUNDUP: Naira crashes to N500 per dollar; Twitter founder to invest in Bitcoin wallets amid crash; 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 crashes to one dollar per N500
• Twitter founder to invest in Bitcoin wallets amid crash
• Oil price hits 30-month high, after OPEC positive demand projection
• Google lifts ban on cryptocurrency adverts

Summary:

On Friday, two weeks after the Central Bank on Nigeria (CBN) devaluation, the Naira completed the week above N500 on the parallel market.

According to abokiFX data, Nigerian money was exchanged for the dollar at N502 in the unofficial market on Friday, down 0.60 from N499 on Thursday.

Similarly, against the British Pound Sterling, the Naira crashed massively by N8 to close the week at the parallel market at N710/£1 compared to N702/£1 of the preceding session. Read more

Twitter founder, Jack Dorsey, has said he would build a hardware wallet for Bitcoin to improve security in the cryptocurrency market and expand the number of people using the digital asset.

Dorsey has been an active investor in the Bitcoin market. His payment company, Square, invested $50 million in cryptocurrency following its acquisition of 4,709 Bitcoins in October 2020. The Bitcoin bought by the company for $10,617, currently sells for $37,206.75. Read more

Google has lifted the three-year ban on cryptocurrency adverts on its platform. While it approved adverts for cryptocurrency, Google sustained its ban on DeFi, initial coin offerings, cryptocurrency loans, initial DEX offerings, token liquidity pools, celebrity cryptocurrency endorsements, un-hosted wallets, and unregulated DApps.

In a statement released by Google for its Financial Products and services policy for June and seen by Ripples Nigeria, the search engine giants said cryptocurrency exchanges would be allowed to target the United States audience with its adverts but they must meet Federal and Local laws in the country. Read more

The price of oil has hit a 30-month high following a positive demand outlook by the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC).

Read also: BUSINESS ROUNDUP: Naira crashes further, nears N500/$1; 57 marginal oilfields to produce first crude in 2022; Other stories

The price of a barrel of brent, the benchmark against which Nigerian crude is traded climbed 1.3 percent, to $70.25 a barrel, a level not seen since May 2019, having hovered around the $62-$67 range for over a week.

While this means more oil money for the Nigerian government, the euphoria may be short-lived because as it portends the federal government will have to spend more to keep the pump price of petrol stable at the current N162-N165. Read more

On NSE ROUNDUP: Investors gain N92.70bn as Morison, Veritas top gainers list

The Nigerian stock market ended the week in a bullish mood after investors gained N92.70 billion on Friday. At the close of business on Friday, the equity capitalisation increased to N20.18 trillion, from N20.092 trillion reported the previous day.

The All Share Index was up by 0.46 percent to increase from 38, 548.24 to 38,726.1 on Friday. The capital market closed with 199.06 million shares traded by investors in 3,150 deals valued at N1.59 billion on Friday. Read more

On the tech scene, one major development is the Federal Government’s banning of Twitter, to join the likes of China and Iran where access to the micro-blogging site is restricted.

The week also saw a new stream of offerings, opening Nigerians and Africans (by extension) to various opportunity windows such as the West African Summit schedule to hold in Senegal later in the year. 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.

Join the conversation

Opinions

Support Ripples Nigeria, hold up solutions journalism

Balanced, fearless journalism driven by data comes at huge financial costs.

As a media platform, we hold leadership accountable and will not trade the right to press freedom and free speech for a piece of cake.

If you like what we do, and are ready to uphold solutions journalism, kindly donate to the Ripples Nigeria cause.

Your support would help to ensure that citizens and institutions continue to have free access to credible and reliable information for societal development.

Donate Now