BUSINESS ROUNDUP: Nigeria’s debt hits N31 trillion; Buhari bans forex on all food imports; 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 to the mainstream business activities, while not forgetting the tech/economy build up.

Here are the Headlines:

• Oil prices drop
• Buhari bans forex on all food imports
• Naira depreciates against dollar on black market
• Nigeria’s total debt hits N31 trillion

Summary:

Oil prices slid for a second day on Friday, as a shock build in the United States crude inventories hurt already weakened sentiment, with the coronavirus outbreak continuing to erode fuel demand.

Brent crude was down 14 cents, or 0.35%, at $39.92 a barrel by 11:28 West Africa Time, after falling nearly 2% on Thursday, while U.S. crude dropped 2 cents, or 0.05%, to $37.28 a barrel, having fallen 2% in the previous session. Nigeria’s premium oil grade, Bonny Light, slid by 10 cents or 0.25% to $39.26 a barrel while Qua Iboe, another major national grade, shed 94 cents or 2.29% to $40.9. Read more

President Muhammadu Buhari Thursday ordered the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to call off issuance of foreign exchange for food and fertiliser imports, according to a statement by his spokesman, Reuters said.

A related directive was given last year that the nominally-autonomous bank only partially observed, with some food importers still having access to foreign exchange. Read more

Naira fell against the United States’ dollar on the parallel market on Wednesday, closing at N445, according to data from abokiFX, which collates rates from informal street traders.

The exchange rate of N443 recorded at Tuesday’s session was N2 stronger than that of Wednesday. Bureaux De Change operators in the country are awaiting another sales round of the dollar from the central bank, having received $50 million from the apex bank on Monday. Read more

Read also: BUSINESS ROUNDUP: NNPC secures $1bn funding for upstream operations; PenCom moves to sanction PFAs; See other stories that made our pick

The Debt Management Office on Wednesday put the country’s total debt at N31 trillion. The figure, according to the DMO, was an increase of N2.38trillion over a period of three months.

The agency disclosed this while releasing Nigeria’s total public debt stock as at June 30 this year. The country’s total public debt stock includes the debt stock of the Federal Government, the 36 states, and the Federal Capital Territory. Read more

On NSE ROUNDUP: Blue-chip stocks lift market capitalisation by N37bn on Friday

The equity section of the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) extended its gain on Friday, adding N37.027 billion on the back of gains in some bank stocks and a few blue-chip companies.

The day’s positive show hinged on the performances of Stanbic, WAPCO, Flour Mills, Zenith and GTB. A positive market breadth was recorded as 19 gainers emerged against 18 losers. Read more

MEANWHILE, on the tech scene, during the week, we saw a development where one of Nigeria’s oldest commercial banks, Union Bank, launched a training programme on machine learning for teens, age 11 to 16. The initiative, according to the bank, was launched to develop youngsters who are expected to take charge of the future in areas of robotics, leading the nation towards its ambition of becoming a smart city. Find report here

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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