BUSINESS ROUNDUP: Naira in all-time low, exchanges for N530/$; DPR shuts nine illegal LPG 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 in all-time low, exchanges for N530/$ at parallel market
• DPR shuts nine illegal LPG plants over safety concerns
• Nigeria’s external reserves grow by 1.59% in August
• Nigeria’s economic growth stunted by insecurity – Finance minister

Summary:

The Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning, Zainab Ahmed, said on Monday the current security challenges stunted Nigeria’s economic growth.

The minister disclosed this when she reviewed the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) latest report on the country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) at a press briefing in Abuja.

The agency had last week announced a 5.1 percent GDP growth for Nigeria in the second quarter of this year.

The Nigerian currency, naira hit an all-time low after exchanging for N530/$ at the parallel market on Thursday.

Data posted from Aboki FX in Thursday evening showed that Naira is exchanging for N530/$ from the previous N528/$.

There has been a steady pressure in the foreign exchange market in the last one week as more Nigerians patronize the black market in a bid to beat the cumbersome process of obtaining dollars from the bank.

The Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR) has revealed that nine Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) plants in Lagos state have been shut down due to illegal operations.

Read also: BUSINESS ROUNDUP: Naira falls to N522/$1 at black market; Bitcoin investors record loss after asset hit highest value; Other stories

DPR’s assistant director of operations for the Lagos zonal office, Olubunmi Ogundare, stated on Friday that the move was part of the agency’s oversight duty of monitoring the activities of companies operating in the industry across the value chain.

According to her, the affected cooking gas plants located in Idimu, Ikotun Egbe, Ipaja and Igando did not comply with the prerequisite safety standards.

Nigeria recorded a monthly gain in its external reserves in August amid news that the countey would be expecting $3.5 billion from the International Monetary fund special drawing rights.

According to data obtained from the Central Bank of Nigeria, Nigeria’s external reserves which opened the month of August at $33.48 billion hit $34.01 billion on August 31, 2021.

The change during the month represents a growth of $533.5 million or 1.59 percent boost in the country’s foreign reserve.

On NSE ROUNDUP: Transcorp ends `week as best gainer, financial sector secures more funds

At the end of trading this week, investors invested N8.650 billion in the capital market to acquire 1.338 billion shares in 19,830 deals.

This is in contrast to the 1.026 billion shares exchanged on the trading floor last week in 18,102 deals, and valued at N8.183 billion.

In the weekly report released by the Nigerian Exchange Group (NGX), it was confirmed that the Financial Services Industry, The Conglomerate Industry and the Consumer Goods were the top three performing sectors at the capital market by measure of volume.

On the tech scene, this week, we tracked stories majorly around fund raisers and product launch.

Lagos-based tech-enabled Agricorp Int’l raised $17.5m to become the largest spices export startup in Africa.

Also, Nigerian startup, eInvites, launched its product to automate invitation cards.

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.