BUSINESS ROUNDUP: Nigerian govt withdraws $35.6m from excess crude account; Bakers increase price of bread by 20%; 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:

• Nigerian govt withdraws $35.6m from excess crude account
• Nigerians to pay more for bread as bakers increase price by 20%
• Court fines CBN as bank counters order pension arrears
• DR Congo puts up oil and gas fields for sale, invites Nigerians, others
• Emirates to reduce Nigerian flights over trapped $85m

Summary:

The Federal Government has again depleted the country’s Excess Crude Account (ECA) after withdrawing $35.377 million in May this year.

With this development, only $376,655.09 is left in the ECA, a savings buffer meant to steady the government’s revenue and serve as a bailout for the economy in dire times.

The Director in charge of Information in the Office of the Accountant General of the Federation (OAGF), Henshaw Ogubike, disclosed this in a communique issued at the end of the monthly Federation Account Allocation Committee (FAAC) meeting on Tuesday in Abuja.

The price of bread is expected to rise by 20% with the bakers divided on how to address the increase in price of raw materials occasioned by the ongoing war between Russia and Ukraine.

The Premium Breadmakers Association of Nigeria (PBAN) had last week announced its members would embark on a four-day warning strike in order to force the Federal Government to put in place business-friendly policies.

However, the bakers in Cross River State pulled out of the strike and declared their intention to increase the price of their bread.

The National Industrial Court has fined the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) N100,000 after seeking to introduce new stay of execution application in the case against the former Taraba governor, Jolly Nyame, and three others.

CBN’s counsel, Johannah Titus, had requested to file two applications challenging the decision of the court to pay Nyame, and judgement creditors; Uba Ahmadu, Abubakar Armayau and Bilkisu Danboyi N151.1 million for unpaid pension for the period of May 2013 to Oct. 2015.

The decision was challenged on May 27, 2022 through an application Titus told the court that CBN intended to replace with two new applications, but her request was countered by Edward Erhinure, counsel to the judgement creditors.

Read also: BUSINESS ROUNDUP: Tribunal fines MultiChoice N100,000 for price hike; Debt servicing surpasses revenue; Other stories

The President of the Democratic Republic of Congo, Félix Tshilombo, has invited international investors to tender bids for the country’s oil and gas blocs as the government moves to diversify its economy from mining.

Olalekan Fakayode on Friday reported that the government is putting up 27 oil blocks and three gas blocks for private investment to boost the country’s economy and create thousands of jobs.

The oil blocs have 22 billion barrels of crude oil while the gas fields comprise 66 billion cubic meters of methane gas – with both contributing about 40 percent to the national budget.

The Emirates Airline has revealed that it will reduce its operations in Nigeria from next month over funds that it is unable to repatriate.

The airline made this known in a letter dated July 22, 2022 and addressed to the Minister of Aviation, Hadi Sirika.

Emirates said the planned reductions in its operations in Nigeria would start from August 15, 2022.

On NSE ROUNDUP: The Nigerian capital market rebounded from three consecutive losses on Friday with the investors taking home N379.1 billion at the close of the day’s business.

This followed the rise in equity capitalization by 1.41 percent after eight hours of trading on the floor of the capital market.

The development pushed up the equity capitalization to N27.16 trillion from N26.78 trillion posted on Thursday.

Similarly, the All-Share Index was up by 703.11 basis points to close trading at 50,370.25 against 49,667.14 recorded the previous day.

On the tech scene, Xend Finance, Twitter, Enhance Ventures, GAT SUMMIT, Qwili, M2P Fintech, Syntizen, Moove were some of the names that made the headlines in the tech ecosystem this week.

A UAE-based omnichannel ordering and data-driven marketing platform, ChatFood, has secured a $3 million bridge round led by Antler.

Also, a Nigerian mobility fintech startup, Moove, has announced expansion out of Africa to secure footprint in India.

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