BUSINESS ROUNDUP: Naira exchanges for N460/dollar; Oil price falls further; 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:

• States’ IGR leaps to N1.33 trillion in 2019
• Naira exchanges for N460/dollar at black market
• Oil falls as China’s failure to set 2020 growth target causes jitters
• Nigeria’s fuel subsidy spending hits N10tn in 15 years

Summary:

Revenue generated by states internally in 2019 came to N1.33 trillion, N16 billion higher than that of 2018, the statistics office said on Friday. “The 36 states and FCT IGR figure hits N1.33tn in 2019 compared to N1.17tn recorded in 2018. This indicates a positive growth of 20.92 per cent year on year.

“Similarly, the Q4 2019 states and FCT IGR figure hits N346.20bn compared to N294.11bn recorded in Q3 2019. This indicates a positive growth of 17.71% quarter on quarter,” the National Bureau of Statistics’ report on internally generated revenue at state level said. Read more

Naira traded at N460 to the U.S. dollar on the parallel market Thursday, having stayed at the same rate of exchange for two days without budging, a signal of the accumulation of unmet demand before central bank lifted embargo on forex sales a while ago.

Last week, the currency was quoted at N450 at the market following the relaxation of the coronavirus lockdown.

Reuters foresees naira to slide further on the black market as low dollar supply at the official market drive investors and exporters to resort to the parallel market. Read more

Oil prices weakened early Friday following China’s refusal to perfect an economic growth plan for this year, stoking fears that the impact of the coronavirus pandemic, which broke out in the Republic in December, might hurt fuel demand in the world’s biggest oil consumer after the U.S.

Brent crude had depressed by $1.88 or 5.21% to $34.18 per barrel as of 08:26 West African Time, reversing the almost 1% gain posted at the previous session.

Read also: BUSINESS ROUNDUP: FOREX experiences shortage; Naira weakens to 450/dollar; See other stories that made our pick

U.S. West Texas Intermediate fell by $2.21 or 6.52% to $31.71 a barrel, having nudged $30.72 earlier. Read more

Oil marketers in Nigeria are ramping up the campaign for full liberalisation of the downstream segment of the oil and gas industry as Africa’s biggest oil producer’s expenditure on fuel subsidy over the past decade and a half came to around N10 trillion.

Major Oil Marketers Association of Nigeria (MOMAN), Petroleum Products Retail Outlets Owners Association of Nigeria, Depot and Petroleum Products Marketers Association of Nigeria and other stakeholders on Thursday reaffirmed the imperative of government actualising a policy shift that would empower private operators to oversee the key affairs of the sector themselves. Read more

On NSE ROUNDUP: Market gains N694.3bn as volume bettered trade

The market maintained an upbeat trend throughout this week as buy pressure outweighed investors’ desire to sell off their stocks. Trade volume was at six-week high this week, raising hopes that liquidity may be round the corner.

All the key market performance indicators closed higher. A positive market breadth was recorded this week as 55 gainers emerged against 8 losers. The All Share Index (ASI) and the Market Capitalisation both advanced by 5.59% to 25,204.75 basis points and N13.136 trillion respectively. 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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