BUSINESS ROUNDUP: Nigeria loses over N60tr yearly to oil theft; IMF condemns bitcoin usage by countries; 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:

• Nigeria loses over N60tr annually to oil theft, others – Report
• IMF condemns usage of bitcoin by countries, as CBDC adoption slows
• UK companies to invest $300m in Nigeria as countries sign agreement on FDI
• Elon Musk clashes with Bill Gates over $500m Tesla investment

Summary

A report has revealed that Nigeria loses between N30 and N60 trillion annually to oil theft, illegal refining, and pipeline vandalism.

The report was the product of research work carried out by a team from the University of Port Harcourt (UNIPORT) and financed by the Shell Petroleum Development Company (SDPC).

The lead researcher, Ben Naanen , said at the public presentation of the report on Friday in Delta that 200,000 barrels of crude oil or 14 percent of the 1.4million bpd produced in Nigeria were stolen by criminals.

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has tackled countries looking to bitcoin as solution to their economic problem, after Central African Republic adopted the cryptocurrency this week.

The growing usage of bitcoin among peer-to-peer and exchange channels has began to lure some countries into considering it as a legal tender, rather than issuing government regulated digital currency.

Ripples Nigeria had reported on Monday that Central African Republic adopted bitcoin as it’s legal tender, eight months after El Salvador became the first country to officially approve it for payment.

The Federal government and the United Kingdom on Tuesday signed a deal that will see the inflow of about $300 million in Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) to Nigeria.

The agreement was reached at the Economic and Development Forum (EDF) held in London.

The agreement is targeting small and medium-size enterprises and will create over 5,000 jobs in the coming years.

There seems to be a silent feud between the owner of Tesla, Elon Musk, and Microsoft founder, Bill Gates, following the latter’s decision to hold a short position on the electric vehicle manufacturer’s share.

Short position is the purchasing of a company’s shares with expectation that the asset’s value would fall. Investors who buy short usually borrow the asset, and sell, while buying the shares back to hand it over to the owner.

During the period the short position investor sold the shares and buyback the assets, if the value of the stock falls in the capital market, the investor makes a gain.

Read also:BUSINESS ROUNDUP: Petrol price jumps by 8.73%; CBN fines 10 banks N7.02trn for weak deposit; Other stories

On NSE ROUNDUP: Market cap hits N26.76tr as demands for Honeywell, others’ shares rise

The value of assets in the Nigerian capital market rose by 1.64 percent on Friday as demands for shares of companies listed in the bourse increased after a growth projection by industry experts.

The renewed interest in companies’ shares in the capital market pushed up the market capitalisation from N26.32 trillion posted on Thursday to N26.76 trillion today.

Also, the All-Share Index rose by 801.18 basis points to close at 49,638.94, up from 48,837.76 recorded the previous day.

On the tech scene, 9jacodekids, Zenda, Afriex, Argent, Twig, Venture Platform, Swvl, Glorang, Joi Gifts, and OnePost 365 were some of the names that made the headlines this week.

A Nigerian Fintech startup, Afriex, has raised a $10 million Series A round led by Sequoia Capital China and Dragonfly Capital.

Dubai, during the week, launched a Dh370 million ($100.7 million) VC debt fund to support startups looking to expand globally.

Also, we published an exclusive on Nigerian Digital Bank, Stellas.

We casted a spotlight on the Ghost Mode feature that allows users make anonymous transactions.

We noted that the bank is fully licensed by the CBN, with deposits insured by the Nigeria Deposit Insurance Corporation, NDIC.

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