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

Hello, and 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:

• Chinese products lead Korean, American, others to dominate African smartphone market
• CBN kicks off BVN 2.0
• Nigerian govt asks Togo, Benin to pay $7m electricity bill, threatens to disconnect them
• Multiple taxes, charges responsible for airline failure in Nigeria —AMCON

Summary:

International Data Corporation (IDC) has revealed that Chinese-owned mobile company, Transsion, owners of the TECNO, Infinix and Itel brand, maintains top market leader position in Africa’s mobile phone space.

This is seeing Chinese products leading Samsung, Apple and other brands. According to the Q3 report, this has been the trend since 2017 when the Chinese phone maker displaced Samsung, stripping it of its title as the “biggest smartphone maker” in Africa. Read more.

The Bankers Committee Saturday, December 14, has introduced a classification of the Bank Verification Number (BVN) to fast track the achievement of the financial inclusion goal of 20 percent by 2020.

With this development, the BVN has been classified into two groups —BVN. The governor of the CBN explained that BVN 2.0 will serve to prevent cyber fraud. See full report.

The Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN) has asked international electricity customers to pay up their $7 million electricity debt.

Usman Mohammed, managing director of TCN, while speaking in Abuja, said international electricity customers had accumulated a bill of over $100 million since he assumed office. See how much foreign nations are owing Nigeria.

Ahmed Kuru, the Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of the Asset Management Company of Nigeria (AMCON) has ascribed the high incidence of airline failure in Nigeria to multiple taxation and high charges imposed by regulatory bodies on airline operators.

He said the lifespan of local carriers had been cut short by these fiscal policies in addition to uncertain and unstable foreign exchange as well as other problems peculiar to the country. Find report here.

On NSE ROUNDUP: Profit-taking drags indices low for 2nd successive week

The Nigerian stock market recorded poor performances across its key market indices this week owing to series of profit-taking activities by investors.

The bear was dominant in the market all week long and the bullish performance posted by the market Wednesday and Thursday was incapable of saving the bourse from ending the week in the negative territory.

The All Share Index (ASI) slumped by 1.19% to 26,536.21 basis points from the 26,855.52 recorded last week. Market Capitalisation dipped by the same margin from the N12.962 trillion posted last week to close at N12.808 trillion. Look up details of gainers and loser here.

 Meanwhile, on our editorial Business Review segment;

We considered the sudden change in the supposed promo price of Opera’s OCar that launched recently. Recent developments during the week have shown that Opera’s cab hailing platform, OCar, is, perhaps, fast thinking of making profits as it moved from charging N200 to current N250 on trips within Lagos.

Read also: BUSINESS ROUNDUP: Nigeria to export rice; online purchase tax coming. See other stories that made our pick

The development which has been confirmed by OCar users comes weeks after launch. While it is expected, it seems rather too early especially for the Opera that is known for long time promo price honeymoon. Find review here.

Also, during the week, Jumia gave analysts reasons to believe it has been doing business to, perhaps, one day woo Amazon to acquire it as its African subsidiary. And, that, since the market has not been positive for the firm, it has commenced internal market sell-out as a way to sustain its reputation before the unexpected eventually happens.

The review was published following the news that online booking platform, Travelstart, has acquired Jumia Travel. Read up on details here.

Bye for now, and see you next week for another serving of Business Roundup. For the latest news and updates from around the globe, keep reading Ripples Nigeria.

Join the conversation

Opinions

Support Ripples Nigeria, hold up solutions journalism

Balanced, fearless journalism driven by data comes at huge financial costs.

As a media platform, we hold leadership accountable and will not trade the right to press freedom and free speech for a piece of cake.

If you like what we do, and are ready to uphold solutions journalism, kindly donate to the Ripples Nigeria cause.

Your support would help to ensure that citizens and institutions continue to have free access to credible and reliable information for societal development.

Donate Now