BUSINESS ROUNDUP: Nigeria’s debt hits N28.63tn; DisCos lose N14bn monthly to NERC’s tariff; See other stories that made our pick

Hello, and welcome to Business Roundup this week. Here, we bring you highlights of events that happened during the week -from the capital market, mainstream business activities while not forgetting the tech/economy build up.

Here are the Headlines:

• Nigeria’s debt hits N28.63 trillion —NBS
• Oil prices slide as virus surge weakens sentiments, Bonny Light loses 60 cents
• We lose N14bn monthly to NERC’s tariff system –DisCos
• NNPC increases gas supply to power plants by 19%, remits N219bn to FAAC

Summary:

The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said on Friday the total public debt portfolio of the Federal and State governments stood at N28.63 trillion as at March 31.

The NBS stated this in its Nigerian domestic and foreign debt report released in Abuja. The bureau said further disaggregation of Nigeria’s total public debt showed that N9.99 trillion which represented 34.89 percent was external. Read more

Oil prices toppled on Friday, extending the previous session losses, over fears that re-imposed lockdowns and curbs aimed at putting the coronavirus spread on leash in the United States and the rest of the world would hurt demand for fuel.

Brent crude futures dropped 60 cents or 1.42% to $41.75 per barrel at 07:38 West Africa Time after shedding over 2% on Thursday. U.S West Texas Intermediate (WTI) futures declined by 71 cents or 1.79% to $38.91 a barrel.Read more

Power distribution companies (Discos) Thursday said the capped tariff system introduced by industry watchdog, Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC), into electricity pricing cost them N13.9 billion in revenue loss every month. The Discos requested realistic indices before the execution of a new value-reflective tariff regime earlier timed to kick off on 1st July.

NERC had in late June postponed the proposed tariff hike to the first quarter 0f 2020, citing the outrageous size of Nigeria’s unmetered population (60%), which it said was a “major impediment to both an immediate tariff review and revenue protection of DisCos,” among other grounds.Read more

Read also: BUSINESS ROUNDUP: Nigerian airlines lose $2.09bn; Domestic debt gulps N609bn; See other stories that made our pick

The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) Thursday said it ramped up average daily natural gas supply to power plants by 19.14 per cent and transferred Naira crude oil proceeds from domestic crude oil and gas sales to the Federation Account in April.

Kennie Obateru, the corporation’s spokesperson stated in a release in Abuja that the growth equalled 788millon standard cubic feet of gas per day (mmscfd), capable of producing 2,873 megawatts of electricity. Read more

On NSE ROUNDUP: Year-to-date loss hits N289bn amidst persistent profit-taking

The Nigerian stock market depreciated by N15.522 billion this week, bringing the total loss so far this year to N288.951 billion, having opened in January with a market capitalisation of N12.967 trillion.

Negative sentiments have been mostly rife across the five sectors indexed with only the Industrial Sector recording a positive return of 1.74% which, even at that, is reasonably weak.

All the key market performance indicators closed lower.A negative market breadth was recorded this week as 33 losers emerged against 25 gainers. The All Share Index (ASI) and the Market Capitalisation simultaneously fell by 0.12% to 24,306.36 basis points and N12.695 trillion respectively. Read more

Thanks for joining the roundup this week. See you next week for another serving of Business Roundup. Don’t forget, for the latest news and updates from around the globe, keep reading Ripples Nigeria.

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