BUSINESS ROUNDUP: Nigerian govt to borrow N250bn for road projects; Banks discover N122.8m fake notes in 2 years; 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:

• Nigerian govt to borrow N250bn for road projects
• Squid game crypto currency crashes, creators steal users’ $3.38m
• Airtel, MTN get licenses to operate as Payment Service Banks
• Nigerian banks discovered N122.8m worth of fake Naira notes in two years

Summary:

The Debt Management Office (DMO) said on Tuesday it would issue new sovereign Sukuk valued between N200 and N250 billion before the end of the year to fund vital road projects across the country.

This is the highest sum that the Nigerian government would raise from a single Sukuk issuance and the fourth since 2017.

For three straight years now, the Federal Government through the DMO has raised a total of N362.57 billion from sovereign Sukuk in oversubscribed issuance deals.

Founders of Squid Game inspired cryptocurrency, which bears the same name, have defrauded its investors of $3.38 million, as the asset’s value crashed to $0 this week.

The crypto had been trading around $2,861 before the crash, as the anonymous creators lured in investors since October 20, with a promise of making available, game-like Squid, with winners getting Squid tokens as compensation.

Prior to the crash, cryptocurrency listing platform, CoinMarketCap, had warned prospective buyers of Squid tokens to be vigilant and conduct due diligence before investing in the new crypto asset which rose to fame on the back of the famous Netflix series.

Two major telecommunication companies in the country, Airtel and MTN Nigeria have been granted licenses to operate as Payment Service Banks (PSB) within Nigeria.

Both companies have secured approval in principle for the PSB license from the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) – but this doesn’t portend well for Nigerian banks.

In separate statements announcing the CBN’s decision to extend the banking hall to the telecoms market, MTN and Airtel stated that they now await the handing over of the license to commence their PSB operation.

Commercial banks in Nigeria intercepted N122.83 million worth of fake Naira notes in circulation in two years.

The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) disclosed this in its 2020 annual report published on its website.

Ripples Nigeria obtained the report on the apex bank’s website on Saturday.

On NSE ROUNDUP: Nigerian bourse investment falls to N12.37 billion, 64.1% below last week trading

Total trading for this week ended with investors trading 1.428 billion shares worth N12.373 billion in 23,987 deals.

This is against the 3.001 billion shares valued at N34.547 billion, which were exchanged in 25,932 deals last week.

Read also: BUSINESS ROUNDUP: Court orders CBN to unfreeze Fintech firms’ accounts; Sokoloan to shutdown after paying N10m fine; Other stories

The Financial Services Industry, Conglomerates Industry and Consumer Goods Industry were the top three performing sector.

Meanwhile, on the tech space, Chipper Cash, Payhippo and Google were some of the names that made the headlines this week.

Borderless payments company, Chipper Cash, raised a Series C extension round of over $150 million.

Payhippo, a lending startup, closed a US$3 million seed funding round to enhance its technology as it looks to support small businesses in Nigeria.

A review of Realme 8i, a newly released smartphone that hit the market in September 2021, equally made the list for the week.

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