BUSINESS ROUNDUP: Nigeria’s Import Index rises 0.52% in Q3; Bitcoin, Ethereum halt December losses; 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:

• Nigeria’s Import Index rises by 0.52% IN Q3- NBS
• Bitcoin, Ethereum reward holders, halt December losses
• Nigeria govt wanted N250bn loan, citizens offered N865bn in seven days
• Flutterwave chairman, Tunde Lemo, acquires majority shares in Union Bank

Summary:

The federal government has expressed excitement that more Nigerians were willing to borrow to the government.

The Debt Management Office (DMO) on Friday revealed that its N250 billion Sovereign Sukuk bond offer, which commenced on December 16, 2021 and completed on December 23, 2021, achieved an unprecedented subscription level of over N865 billion.

This result reflected a 346 percent subscription level, or a N615 billion oversubscription it noted.

Bitcoin and Ethereum finally made their way out of the three weeks dip as the cryptocurrency market headed into Christmas period this weekend, with the two crypto averaging two percent rise in value.

In the last 24hour, bitcoin market value appreciated by 3.84 percent to finally hit $51,378 per coin after being stuck under $50,000 in the last three weeks.

Prior to the latest hike in value, BTC traded at $48,060.68, its lowest in 24 hours, but had also sold for $51,378 during the same period, before retracting to $50,836.70.

The chairman of Flutterwave, Tunde Lemo, has acquired the majority stake in Union Bank after substantial shareholders exited their investment from the Nigerian lender.

Lemo bought 89.39 percent of Union Bank from Union Global Partners Ltd. (UGPL) and some other unnamed existing stakeholders through his investment firm, Titan Trust Bank Limited.

This gives a substantial control of Union Bank to Lemo, who was previously the Managing Director of Wema Bank between 2000 and 2003, before joining the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) as a deputy governor.

The all-commodity group import index rose by 0.52 percent between July and September 2021, according to the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS).

READ ALSO: BUSINESS ROUNDUP: Nigeria is again Africa’s top oil producer; Chaka to refund buyers of MTN Nigeria shares; Other stories

According to NBS Commodity Price Indices and Terms of Trade report for Quarter Three, 2021, released on Tuesday the marginal rise was due to rising prices of products of the chemical and allied industries.

Others are wood and articles of wood, wood charcoal and articles, Paper making material; paper and paperboard.

On NSE ROUNDUP: Investors trade 965m shares worth N12.45bn in five days as Julius Berger, MRS lead losers

Investors at the Nigerian stock market traded 965.061 million shares worth N12.455 billion in 14,802 deals this week.

This was in contrast to the 1.317 billion shares valued at N15.330 billion that exchanged hands in 18,292 deals last week.

The Financial Services Industry, the Conglomerates Industry, and Consumer Goods Industry were the top three performing sectors for the week.

Meanwhile, on the tech space, Stranerd, TikTok, MAX NG, Teesas and Planet42 were some of the names that made the headlines this week.

Chinese social media product, TikTok, has surpassed both Facebook and Google as the most visited website in 2021.

Metro Africa Xpress Inc. (MAX), during the week, announced raising a $31 million Series B investment round.

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