BUSINESS ROUNDUP: Nigeria to assemble Hyundia car; Bolt enters Abeokuta and Enugu. See other stories that made our pick

Hi, welcome to our Business Roundup this week. In case you missed out on details, here are the top highlights of events that happened during the week.

Headlines:

• Bolt extends ride-hailing service to Abeokuta and Enugu.
• Kenya’s digital lending market welcomes Nigeria’s Carbon company.
• Lagos-based renewable energy firm Rensource raises $20M from venture capitalists
• Hyundai to set up car plant in Nigeria
Summary:

The Estonian company, Bolt (formally doing business as Taxify) has Friday, December 20, announced its latest entry into two other Nigerian states as part of its expansion drive in preparation to enter 2020.

The ride-hailing company made the announcement on Friday via Twitter, drawing the attention of the public to its new markets, Abeokuta and Enugu. Read report.

Nigeria’s digital lending platform, Carbon (Paylater) has announced its entry into the Kenyan fintech space as a new player.

The Fintech company, which launched operations in Nigeria 4 years ago, made the new market entry announcement on Thursday, December 19, in a press release, expressing its excitement as it crosses the border to invest in East Africa. Read details.

Rensource Energy, a Lagos-based renewable energy company, has raised $20 million in a Series A round investment.

The new investment, which was co-led by CRE Venture Capital and the Omidyar network, is to see the funding of Rensource business as it continues on the path to fuel Africa by harnessing solar energy. Read more.

President Muhammadu Buhari on Tuesday, announced that Nigeria would collaborate with, and support Hyundai Engineering Company Limited to set up a car plant, and also rehabilitate petroleum refineries in the country.

He made the announcement when he received the President/Chief Executive Officer of Hyundai Engineering, Mr Chang Hag Kim, at State House, Abuja on Tuesday. See report.

On NSE ROUNDUP: Index and Market Capitalisation close lower as profit-taking dominates trade

The Nigerian bourse posted negative performances across its key market indicators for the week under review as profit-taking efforts on the part of investors intensified.

READ ALSO: BUSINESS ROUNDUP: Nigeria to disconnect Togo and Benin; China displaces America. See other stories that made our pick

The bear maintained a strong hold on the market for the greater part of the week even though bullish performances were recorded on Monday and Wednesday. The All Share Index (ASI) slumped by 0.04% to 26,526.35 basis points from the 26,536.21 recorded last week. Read full report here.

Meanwhile, on our editorial Business Review segment;

Our analyst looked at the business implications attached to Instagram’s latest development on its determination to restrict certain adverts in a bid to protect its social networking platform. These Ads include cigarette, alcohol and related products.

While Instagram might be acting in the best interest of protecting its community, especially teenagers and kids on the platform; we noted that this intended move might be a killjoy to businesses its proposed restrictions, and serve to its personal disadvantage. Find out why.

We also reviewed the news revealing how betting sites in Nigeria are topping website ranking stats to list among top 50 most visited platforms in the country.

We explained how this result has been highly influenced by the failing economy. We noted that the phenomenon of growing betting rates in the Nigerian economy can be easily linked to gross unemployment among youth and the general poor standard of living. See the ranking report here.

Thanks for joining the round up this week. For the latest news and updates from around the globe, keep reading Ripples Nigeria.

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