BUSINESS ROUNDUP: Nigeria is Africa’s largest crude oil producer; Inflation rate hits 22.41%; other stories

Hello, and welcome to the 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:

· Egyptian, SA billionaires overtake Abdulsamad Rabiu on Africa’s richest list after naira devaluation
· Naira depreciation reduces Dangote, Abdulsamad’s wealth by $5.85bn
· Nigeria reclaims top spot as Africa’s largest crude oil producer, surpasses Angola
· BUA Cement, Eterna, Nigerian banks are stocks to watch this week
· Nigeria’s inflation rate rises to 22.41%

Summary:

Nigerian billionaire, Abdulsamad Rabiu, has lost his position on Africa’s richest list to Egyptian billionaires, Nassef Sawiris and Naguib Sawiris, following the naira devaluation by the Central Bank of Nigeria.

Prior to the devaluation of the naira on Wednesday, Rabiu was ahead of the Sawiris brothers, occupying the fourth spot with $8.27 billion, according to the African Billionaire Index data obtained from Bloomberg and analysed by Ripples Nigeria.

He sat above Natie Kirsh of South Africa, who was worth $7.33 billion and ranked fifth. At the time Nassef’s estimated net worth was $7.30 billion, which placed him in the sixth position, ahead of Naguib, whose fortune was valued at $5.93 billion, ranking him at the seventh spot.

The naira devaluation by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has reduced the wealth of Africa’s richest man, Aliko Dangote and his countryman, Abdulsamad Rabiu, by $5.85 billion.

On Thursday, Bloomberg Billionaire Index disclosed that the net worth of Dangote, the founder of Dangote Group, the majority shareholder of Dangote Cement and Dangote Sugar, lost $3.12 billion.

Dangote’s estimated wealth fell from $20.92 billion to $17.8 billion, as the value of his cement and food businesses was affected by the unification of the multiple exchange rates.

 

The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) on Thursday revealed that the nation’s inflation rate had risen to 22.41 per cent in the month of May.

This is a rise from the previous month’s figure of 22.22 per cent.

According to the NBS, Food & Non-Alcoholic Beverages, Housing Water, and Electricity. Gas & Other Fuel, Clothing & Footwear were the major drivers of the inflation rate in May.

Nigeria has reclaimed the first position as Africa’s largest crude oil producer by overtaking Angola.

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This is according to data released by the Organization of Petroleum Producing Countries (OPEC) for crude oil production for the month of May, 2023.

For the month of April, Angola produced more crude than Nigeria.

Nigeria reclaimed the top spot on Africa’s largest producers list, surpassing Libya and Angola after reporting 1.18 million barrels per day for the month of May 2023.

Going into the Nigerian stock market this week, note that Eterna, BUA Cement and Nigerian banks are the stocks to watch.

This week, the stock market would be trading for four days due to the Democracy Day public holiday scheduled for Monday, June 12, 2023.

Ripples Nigeria stocks watchlist is a selection of stocks monitored for viable trading or investing opportunities. An investor may casually generate a list of equities for investment purposes. But we have taken the pain to do that based on certain parameters in order to save you that hassle.

NSE ROUNDUP: Sell-offs cost Nigeria’s capital market N105.7bn

The value of investments in the Nigerian capital market crashed by -0.32 percent due to sell-offs at the close of trading on Friday.

This represented a N105.7 billion dip in market capitalization from N32.23 trillion to N32.12 trillion at the close of trading today.

Similarly, the All-Share Index shed 194.25 basis points to drop from 59,195 to 59,000.96.

Investors traded 622.41 million shares valued at N6.51 billion in 9,417 deals on Friday.

This fell short of the 1.17 billion shares worth N15.35 billion traded by shareholders in 12,611 deals the previous day.

On the tech scene, Messenger, Peach Motors, Trella, Twitter, Jada, GrEEK, Haul247, Creditchek, Maltento, JP Morgan, Brookfield Asset Management, byanat were some of the names that made the headlines in the tech ecosystem this week.

Creditchek, a Nigerian fintech startup, has launched to help lenders across Africa assess credit risks by providing reliable verification of potential consumers’ creditworthiness.

Also, Nigeria’s Haul247, a logistics tech platform that connects businesses with haulage and warehousing services, has announced securing a $3 million in seed funding.

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